6 held for L&T staffers kidnap

KADAPA: Kadapa police arrested six persons involved in the kidnap of L&T company site manager J Prakash and recovered Rs 28.25 lakh cash from them on Monday.Disclosing the arrest of the accused at a press conference, Kadapa DSP Bhaskar Reddy said the six were nabbed from their hideouts in different villages including Karsakuntapalli, Kalama and Pamalur on Yerraguntal- Kadapa highway.The arrested have been identified as Obulesu, Ravi, Kesava, Prabhakar, Mahaboob Basha and Syed Rafi, while one more accused Baladu is still at large.Prakash was kidnapped by a seven-member gang on June 16, when he was travelling by his car to L&T project office at Mangapatnam.The gang made him stop his car in a desolated area between Chilamakuru and Kalamala in Yerraguntla mandal, threw chilli powder on Prakash and kidnapped him.Later, they took him to Konauppalapadu in Yadiki mandal, Anantapur district. It is the native village of Kesava, one of the gang members.Based on a complaint from the company, police registered a case on June 17.Meanwhile, the kidnappers contacted the L&T office and demanded Rs 30 lakh ransom for releasing Prakash and also threatened to kill him, if the company approached the police. The company paid the ransom and got Prakash released.Police teams including Yerraguntla CI Umamaheswar Rao, Kadapa Urban CI Nageswar, Kadapa CCS CI Venkatadri, Rural CI Ramakrishana, SIs Hema Sundar and Sivasankar had taken up the investigation of the case.The police team also seized two gold rings, a gold chain, six cellphones and a motorcycle from the arrested kidnappers, along with Rs 28.25 lakhs cash.