ROURKELA, Dec 9: They could have pulled it off with finesse, had they not been so raw at it. But these youngsters, who demanded ransom from a doctor in Rourkela, were very much immature at the game. And predictably, they are cooling their heels in a police station now.According to reports, Yogesh Patel, owner of Vesaj Patel Nursing Home here, had been receiving threatening phone calls from unidentified persons for quite some days. The callers not only threatened to blow up Patel's clinic but also warned him that they would kill his family members unless he paid up Rs 20 lakhs.The ominous message was first conveyed to Patel in a letter in mid-November. The letter asked him to pay up within seven days and warned him not to inform the police. Patel ignored the letter as a hoax.However, the seriousness of the message began to sink in after he began to receive repeated phone calls, echoing the earlier demands.On November 28, one of the callers instructed him to bring the ransom amount to Block H of Sector 6. An alarmed Patel immediately informed the police about the call. Asking Patel to follow the caller's instructions, the police laid a trap to nab the the unsuspecting culprits, who easily fell for it. One Sharmila Sagar was arrested by the superintendent of police, R N Padhi, who was disguised as a taxi driver.On interrogation, Sharmila said that she and her accomplices Susant Parida and Hasim, got the idea of demanding a ransom from a report on Gulshan Kumar murder case, published in a crime magazine.Susant (24), who masterminded the whole episode, was arrested on the basis of information provided by Sharmila. Hasim, another accomplice who was absconding, was nabbed on Monday night by the police.Sharmila said that she was under the impression that Patel was rich enough to pay the ransom.
