Three more held in abduction of former shuttler,two brothers

Three more people were onMonday arrested in connection with the kidnapping of formernational badminton player Praveen and his two brothers fromhere over a land dispute, police said.

The arrested include a personal assistant of formerAndhra Pradesh minister Bhuma Akhila Priya, who was alreadyarrested on January 6 in the kidnapping and is lodged in aprison here.

With this, the number of those arrested in the casehas gone up to four.

A group of around 15 people, posing as Income Taxsleuths, with fake search warrants entered the house ofPraveen, at Bowenpally on the night of January 5 on thepretext of conducting a raid and abducted him and his twobrothers, after confining their other family members in aroom.

The abductors took Praveen and his brothers to afarmhouse but later abandoned them at Narsingi here in theearly hours of January 6 after police intensified search tolocate them.

Police rescued the trio from there.

During the investigation, it was established that Akhila Priya planned and executed the crime along with herhusband Bhargava Ram (who is absconding), and otheraccomplices in order to grab the land or extort money from thekidnapped brothers, Hyderabad Commissioner of Police AnjaniKumar told reporters.

The dispute pertains to a 25-acre land located atHafeezpet here which was purchased by Praveen in 2016.

The three people, who were allegedly involved in thekidnapping, confessed to police that on Akhila Priya'sinstructions they actively participated in the crime by doinga recce of the house, police said.

In order to hide their identity during theirexecution of crime the trio had purchased six SIM cards andan equal number of mobile phones and a SIM was given to AkhilaPriya while others used the remaining,they said. Names of as many as 19 people have surfaced duringinvestigation but they are under verification, police said.

Meanwhile, a local court granted police three dayscustody of Akhila Priya from Monday while rejecting her bailplea, they added.PTI VVK BNWELCOME BNWELCOME