Businessman kidnaps daughter, demands Rs 10 million ransom from wife

A 35-year-old businessman from Mysore near here is cooling his heels in the jail after unsuccessfully trying to orchestrate the abduction of his own daughter and demanding a ransom of Rs 10 million from his wife.

Police said A S Prashanth Kumar Jain kidnapped his five-year-old daughter Ichcha Jain about ten days ago, when his wife was out of station. Prashanth Kumar’s wife Abhinetri had left Mysore for Chennagiri in Shimoga to attend a wedding earlier this month, leaving the daughter behind with her husband.

When she returned to Mysore on January 19, she was shocked to find both her husband and daughter missing. After her attempts to trace them became futile, she lodged a complaint with the police that her husband and daughter were missing.

Police said Prashanth Kumar had taken his daughter to Bangalore and Hubli before checking into a lodge in Kolhapur in neighbouring Maharashtra. Two days after lodging a complaint with the police, Abhinetri received a phone call on her mobile. Prashanth Kumar disguised his voice as the kidnapper and demanded a ransom of Rs 10 million from his wife for the five-year-old’s release.

The ransom calls were repeated twice later. But, the police managed to trace the call to Kolhapur and raided the lodge, where Prashanth Kumar was staying with his daughter. The police arrested Prashanth Kumar and re-united the daughter with her mother.

Prashanth Kumar, who confessed to the crime, said he was in neck-deep in debt. It has also been learnt that Prashanth Kumar had pawned all the jewellery and valuables in the house during his wife’s absence. He went into hiding on learning that his wife was returning on January 19.

Prashanth Kumar was brought to Mysore, produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody.