The Chamarajanagar district police on Tuesday announced the rescue of a family of three persons from Bengaluru less than 24 hours after their abduction from a resort in Bandipur, near here.
Soon after receiving a complaint from the manager of Country Club resort at Mangala village in Bandipur of Gundlupet taluk about the abduction of C.J. Nishant, aged around 35, a resident of Madanayakanahalli near Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bengaluru, his wife Chandana, 29, and their seven-year-old son from the resort on Monday, the Chamarajanagar district police swung into action and constituted a special team.
Working on clues, the police team traced the family to a farmhouse at Honnahalli village in Sindagi taluk of Vijayapura district, where they had been held captive by Puneeth Eerappa and Snehit Eerappa of Davaleshwara village in Bagalkot after a dispute arose over their financial transactions with Nishant.
The police also arrested four out of the total seven persons involved in the abduction of Nishant and his family from the road just outside the resort on Monday.
“The victims are doing fine. They were not assaulted or tortured. They are being brought back to Gundlupet,” said a senior police officer.
According to the police, Nishant and his family checked into the resort on March 1. Around 11.45 a.m. on Monday when the family left the resort in a car, two more cars, waiting for them outside the resort, waylaid their vehicle.
Eye-witnesses, including employees of the resort, said they saw the occupants of the other cars forcing the family out of their car before bundling them into one of theirs and drove away. Two persons from the group of abductors smashed the glass panes of Nishant’s car before driving it away.
Upon examination of CCTV footage from the resort, one of the cars involved in the abduction had entered the resort earlier in the day. The driver of the car had even enquired with the staff for availability of a room in the resort, apparently to gather information about Nishant’s movement, the complaint said.
Under the guidance of Superintendent of Police, Chamarajanagar, B.T. Kavitha and Additional Superintendent of Police, Chamarajanagar, Shashidhar, who visited the resort, the special team of police personnel in coordination with the technical wing, fingerprint squad and wireless team soon zeroed in on the farmhouse in Vijayapura district’s Honnahalli village and rescued the victims.
Four of the accused — Mallikarjun, 30, Eeranna, 32, Siddaramu, 40, and Vishwanath — were picked up from the farmhouse. The main accused — Puneeth Eerappa and Snehit Eerappa — along with Bheemanagouda are absconding.
The police are ascertaining the background of Nishant. They are also looking into the genuineness of a BBMP employee card recovered from him.
“He appears to have worked in various private companies earlier and had financial transactions with the accused,” said a senior police official.
Published – March 04, 2025 08:58 pm IST