Seven arrested for bizman’s kidnap in Hyderabad

The victim, Mohd Arif Akbani (43), the owner of Kaif Timber Traders at Karmanghat, and the prime suspect Fazlani were distant relatives and natives of Nagpur.

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda Police solved the kidnap case of a timber depot owner reported in LB Nagar last week and arrested seven persons from Attapur on Monday. Police recovered two cars and 219 cubic feet of teak wood from them. A financial dispute led to the kidnap, officials said.

The arrested were identified as Mohd Luqman Fazlani (37), Mohd Tariq Ameen Fazlani (40), from Rajendranagar, Mohd Nadeem (35) from Habeebnagar, Mohd Sayani (34) from Khairatabad, Mohd Imran (40) from Charminar, Mohd Imran Ghazi (40) and Santosh Masi (50) from Attapur. All of them were into timber business.

According to the police, the victim, Mohd Arif Akbani (43), the owner of Kaif Timber Traders at Karmanghat, and the prime suspect Fazlani were distant relatives and natives of Nagpur. Fazlani and his brothers have timber depots at Attapur and Asifnagar. The victim’s brother Mohd Imran Akbani worked as a manager with the Fazlani brothers two years ago and took care of their business accounts.

“The suspects alleged that Imran Akbani embezzled over Rs 1 crore from them, and demanded that he repay them. Sensing trouble, Imran quit the job,” said Mahesh Bhagwat, Police Commissioner, Rachakonda. Later, the Akbani brothers opened a timber depot in LB Nagar, after which Fazlani and his men decided to kidnap Imran and recover their money. They went to Arif Akbani’s shop and demanded the money, which he refused.

“They then disconnected the CCTV and kidnapped him and shifted the wood from the depot on trucks to their timber depot at Attapur,” Bhagwat said. Later, when they came to know that the police was searching for them, they took Akbani towards Medchal in a car. However, their vehicle was stopped by the Alwal Traffic police as the driver was drunk. They then made the victim board a private bus to Nagpur, from where he called the police, the Commissioner said.