Officers rescue kidnapped women after car chase, brave sword attack by abductors in the bargain
Officers rescue kidnapped women after car chase, brave sword attack by abductors in the bargain
In a sequence straight out of a Sandalwood film, a team of policemen from the Bangalore south division rescued 12 bar girls from kidnappers who were demanding Rs 50 lakh for their release. Syed Wasim, brother of infamous goon Syed Nasru (see box), allegedly led the gang.
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Where the battle was fought: A police officer inspects the sword and the vehicle used by the kidnappers in Bagalur.
Pic/Vinod Kumar T |
Carjacked
Assistant Commissioner of Police Guled SY said, "Wasim and his five associates hijacked the Toyota Qualis that was dropping the bar girls home from Ashoka Residency in Koramangala at around 11.45 pm on Saturday night."
They allegedly intercepted the vehicle on 80 ft road, beat the driver and dumped him out before speeding away.
Tracking them
Based on a complaint filed by the hotel manager Madhu Kumar, Koramangala police alerted the control room to track the vehicle. Deputy Commissioner of Police BNS Reddy formed four teams to track the vehicle's movements. Meanwhile, Wasim allegedly called up Kumar from the mobile phone of one of the girls and demanded Rs 50 lakh to release the girls. Cops started tracking the mobile number till Bagalur.
Encounter
The four police teams then zoomed to Bagalur and covered the four major roads of the area. In a few minutes later, they spotted the Qualis, being accompanied by a Zen.
Inspector G Nagraj from Koramangala warned Wasim and his team to surrender, but the goons attacked him with a sword and injured him. Nagraj and his colleagues then opened fire, injuring Wasim and his associates. They rescued the girls and handed them over to the hotel management. "All the 12 girls were safe and had not been harmed by the gang while they were in the car," Guled said. "Wasim and his associates Syed Pasha and Hidayath Khan were admitted to Victoria hospital while cases of dacoity and kidnapping were slapped against them."
Wasim's brother Nasru was notorious for kidnapping artistes and sexually assaulting them. When he escaped from jail, a police team tracked him down and he was shot dead in an encounter near Anekal in May 2005. The same team arrested Nasru's brothers Zafru, Wasim and Zabi and their accomplices. Wasim and Zabi were later released.
| How mobile phone helped track them |
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After the complaint, the police started tracking the mobile number of the bar girl from whose number Wasim had called the hotel manager to demand ransom. Initially, the mobile was on for sometime and the police tracked it from the Vijayanagar, Yelahanka and Bagalur towers, but suddenly it was switched off.
Deputy Commissioner of Police BNS Reddy told MiD-DAY that Wasim had asked everyone to switch off their phones after he realised that the police could monitor their movements through the mobile phone. The police zeroed in on Bagalur area where they had last tracked the phone.
A few minutes later, they found the Qualis car moving along with a Zen car being escorted by Wasim. |
