CBI rescues two abducted TN traders, 4 held

Acting on a source, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Monday morning rescued two Tamil Nadu businessmen who were abducted three days ago by a city-based gang and confined in a flat in west Delhi. HT reports.

Acting on a source, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Monday morning rescued two Tamil Nadu businessmen who were abducted three days ago by a city-based gang and confined in a flat in west Delhi.

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The anti-kidnapping operation is only the second instance since 2001 when the CBI - which otherwise specialises in probing economic crimes and special crimes including complex murder cases - has intervened in a kidnapping case in the city on its own. The operation was undertaken by an Economic Offences Wing (EOW) team.

When asked why the assistance of Delhi Police was not taken for the operation, a CBI source clarified, "We did inform an agency about it but can't identify it. We acted since we had the information. It is in our mandate to undertake an anti-kidnapping operation and it is not forbidden to us, though, we have not done such operations frequently. The last time was in 2001."

A Delhi Police source said, "Delhi Police would have acted had there been a complaint made to us. The CBI has the right to do any such operation and we will extend them our help, if required by them."

The CBI source added, "We were tracking the gang's activities as part of an unrelated probe of ours. We got the information that it had abducted the two businessmen on November 25 after they arrived in Delhi by a flight from Chennai."

The hostages had been called to Delhi to "see yarn samples for purchase," he said.

Apart from rescuing the two hostages, yarn traders AG Anandan and Lenin, the CBI team also arrested four of their abductors, including two of their controllers - Sanjeev Radi alias Bunty and Abdul Munaf.

"The abductors had demanded and received a ransom of R25 lakh in the form of Real Time Gross Statement bank transfer in a Delhi-based bank account from the hostages' families," said said the agency's joint director OP Galhotra.

The hostages were kept in a first-floor flat near Mohan Garden in Uttam Nagar.

The CBI team recovered no cash or weapon from the flat, said the source.

Scrutiny of seized forged documents indicated the gang's involvement in money laundering.