Hostage rescued, kidnappers killed in shoot-out

In an action-packed encounter, the Bangalore police gunned down two notorious criminals after rescuing a real estate businessman held hostage by them for over a week.

The realtor, who had been kept chained and beaten black and blue by his captors, had been admitted to a hospital in Bangalore, where he is recovering.

The sequence of events, leading to the rescue of the hostage and killing of the captors, began on the day of Eid Ul Fitr when the real estate businessman Nazir Khan was returning to his house in Hoskote on the outskirts of Bangalore after celebrating the festival in his father’s house in a village nearby.

The vehicle in which Nazir Khan and his family was travelling was waylaid by a six-member gang on the road. The gang-members threatened Nazir Khan at gunpoint and kidnapped him.

Soon Nazir Khan was bundled into a waiting vehicle, taken away and hid in the house of one of the gangster’s sister in Austin Town in Bangalore. The gangsters then called Nazir Khan’s family and demanded a ransom of Rs 20 million. When the family members expressed their inability to mobilize such a huge sum of money, the gangsters reduced the ransom to Rs 8.5 million.

Meanwhile, the family of Nazir Khan approached the Hoskote police, which in turn got in touch with Bangalore Police. A team of policemen led by Assistant Commissioner of Police B K Shivaram swung into action and traced the calls to one Tippu, a rowdy-sheeter in Bangalore.

Tippu’s arrest led to the arrest of one more associate Mastan, both of whom confessed that they were part of the six-member gang that had abducted Nazir Khan and that the hostage had been kept in the house of a fellow kidnapper in Bangalore. Police raided the house late on Tuesday night and rescued Nazir Khan, who was in a bad shape after being chained and beaten.

Tippu also confessed that the kingpin of the gang Gafoor had planned to kill Nazir Khan and had asked him to bring the hostage to Kaigondanahalli lake.

In a carefully laid out trap, the police hired an autorickshaw and went to the banks of Kaigondanahalli in disguise. A police jeep with armed personnel kept a watch from a distance.

Around the appointed time, a white ambassador car arrived at the spot and halted about 50 yards ahead of the autorickshaw. The king-pin Gafoor, 32, and his associate Goru, 30, alighted from the car and called out to Tippu. But, they soon realized that the people in the autorickshaw were policemen and opened fire. The policemen, who were wearing bullet-proof vests returned the fire. Hit by a hail of bullets, Gafoor died on the spot while Goru succumbed to the bullet injuries in the hospital.

Police said Gafoor was wanted in a total of 26 cases of robbery, dacoity, kidnap and extortion while Goru was wanted in two cases of kidnapping for ransom.