Kidnappers of government staff held

MADURAI: The arrest of a seven-member gang, involved in the kidnap of two government servants, here on Monday has helped Madurai City police to crack a few more cases, including  murder. Talking to reporters P Kannappan, Commissioner of Police, Madurai, said that Veemaraj (50), an assessor at the Tamil Nadu Electricity Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) office in Karuppayoorani,  was kidnapped by a gang on February 29 in a car and was held captive in a farm near Sempatti in Dindigul.The gang allegedly told Veemaraj that he had been kidnapped because he did not keep his promise of getting a job in the TANGEDCO after taking money from many persons.Members of the gang, who demanded a ransom of `40 lakh to release him, allegedly showed Veemaraj stamp papers written in his name stating that he owed money to them. Apart from this, they also obtained his signature and thumb impression in blank papers and promissory no-tes, Kannappan said.Based on Veemaraj’s complaint to the Subramaniyapuram police, Nagaraja, Inspector, registered a case and arrested P Bhuvaneswar (35) of Sivagangai now residing at Teppakulam, M Usilai Siva (33) of Usilampatti at present staying in Tirupparangundram, auto driver A Kannan (30) of Arappalayam, V Thangakodi (30), V Jayakalyani (26), P Thangapandi (31) all from Perungudi and S Vijayapandi (27) of Anuppanadi. Two cars with fake registration numbers and a motorcycle were recovered from them, the Commissioner said.During investigations it came to light that Bhuvaneswar, who acted as the gang leader, was involved in a mu-rder case at Kalayarkoil in 2008. Bhuvaneswar was living in Madurai with the wife of the man whom he murdered. Another member was an accused in murder and extortion cases. Kannan was involved in the kidnap of a Town Planning Officer of the Madurai corporation. They had extorted `15 lakh from him.During investigations the police found out that the same gang had kidnapped Muthukumar, an assistant in the survey department in Madurai city and got `55,000 and jewels as ransom. A case was registered with Tallakulam police station in this regard then, the CoP said.