The Karnataka Police arrested six people including a police inspector for allegedly kidnapping and attempting to kill a contractor who is also a close aide of former minister and JD(S) MLA H D Revanna.
The accused have been identified as R Satish, 38, B S Tejasvi, 37, Aravind, 40, R Madhusudhan, 38, C Murugan, 35, and J Ashok, 38. Ashok is a police inspector with the Internal Security Division (ISD). Two others, Lohith Kumar and Praveen, are absconding.
The victim, Ashwath Narayana Gowda, is a contractor and a resident of Hassan.
On October 10 around 8.20 pm, when Gowda was travelling in a car, his vehicle was stopped and he was kidnapped. The alleged plan of the accused was to extort money from Gowda but the latter managed to escape.
ISD police inspector Ashok allegedly got involved with rowdies while he was working with the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Bengaluru and used to run a gang to extort money from contractors and affluent people.
The probe revealed that Kumar and Praveen were also accused in former MLA Varthur Prakash’s kidnap case. They kept a tab on the movements of Gowda for a month before kidnapping him, the police said.
A police officer said Ashok was posted in Kolar but he barely visited his office. He usually stayed in Bengaluru to execute his criminal activities.