Bokaro police have arrested five of the six criminals who had kidnapped leading Bokaro builder-cum-vegetable wholesaler Vijay Prasad late on May 1 night but released him after 12 hours.
The arrested criminals from Dhanbad, Bokaro and Purulia (Bengal) have been identified as Amit Kumar Paul (Ram Nagar Colony, Chas), Pradip Kumar Singh (Mahuda in Dhanbad), Romi Kumar Burnwal (Mahuda Bazaar in Dhanbad), Dhananjay Ravani (Bokaro) and Prahlad Lohar (Bagmundi in Purulia).
Bokaro SP Y.S. Ramesh, at a news meet in his office on Wednesday, called Amit Kumar Paul, also victim Prasad's neighbour, the mastermind.
"The next-door neighbour of businessman Prasad, Paul hatched the conspiracy and called the other five to trail the businessman's daily movement for a week before the kidnap," SP Ramesh said.
After Prasad got released on May 2, police started tracing call details through which Rawani was nabbed from Dugda in Bokaro on May 23 night. Rawani's interrogation revealed details of the other criminals involved in this kidnap. Paul, Singh, Burnwal and Lohar were nabbed from places they hailed from in the past 36 hours.
Raids are on to arrest the sixth criminal, Rakesh Kumar of Chas, SP Ramesh said.
Police have also recovered the SUV from Mahuda belonging to Pradip that was used by the group in Prasad's kidnap, as well as a countrymade pistol, two cartridges and five cellphones.
After being kidnapped around 10.45pm on May 1 from Sector 1 of Bengal, Prasad was taken to several locations of Bengal and Singhbhum before being put on a vegetable carrier van at an isolated place around 11am on May 2 in the forests of Pindrajora, 18km from Bokaro steel city, from where the businessman reached the main road on NH-32 connecting Purulia with Chas township. He then called his son on his mobile phone and reached home where he broke down before his family members.
Close kin of the businessman have denied any ransom money exchanged hands. Early on May 2, six Bokaro policemen along with close kin of the businessman had taken Rs 5 lakh as a trap at nearby Balrampur in Bengal near a water body. But, the kidnappers, sensing a trap, had then bolted without the money.
