Akshay had stagemanaged his own abduction drama

home around 8 pm on Thursday evening, investigators were suspicious of the development. The driver broke down during questioning and revealed the plot, Singh added. The police said that Akshay, a first year engineering student, had become used to a lavish lifestyle. He apparently needed around Rs 110 each day for buying expensive Marlboro cigarettes alone.

It appears that Akshay had incured a debt of Rs 75,000 and he was finding ways and mean to repay the money. He was looking for ways to extract money from his father and hit upon the `kidnap’ idea as a best possible method. He convinced John and others of the plan and managed to pull it off until police officials smelt a rat during the investigation. Everything worked to plan. John and three other associates informed S Sundaram that his son, Akshay, had been kidnapped and could be released if he was willing to pay Rs 10 lakh. The figure was later reduced to Rs 5 lakh and finally settled at Rs 2 lakh.

Sundaram, who is a senior executive with Essar Oil, was asked to deliver the ransom money at a spot on Worli Seaface around 6.30 pm. The amount was collected by three men, who were in a taxi.

However, when Akshay returned to his Napean Sea Road residence around 8 pm, little was he aware that the crime branch sleuths were waiting to question him in connection with the kidnapping. The officers found several discrepancies in his statement, which led to the interrogation of John.

John broke down and confessed that he made the phone-calls. He also revealed the name of his three associates, who have been detained by unit-2 of the crime branch. They have been identified as Ramdas, Haridas and Papu, civil contractors operating from Santacruz.

The police have recovered the entire sum of Rs 2 lakh from Papu’s residence at Santacruz. All the five men, including Akshay, have been detained by the crime branch.

John, who was employed by Sundaram about 18 months ago, was taken into confidence by Akshay. The driver later roped in three other associates, the police informed.

This is not a stray incident. Members of the Abu Salem gang abducted director of Milton Plastic Chiranjeev Waghani near his Malabar Hill residence, early this year. The victim was found at his residence under mysterious circumstances after a few days.

A diamond-dealer had been abducted from his residence at Dahisar early this week. However, the police are still clueless about his whereabouts. At least two other kidnapping cases have taken place in South Mumbai. The police are tightlipped about the incidents.