The van hired by the accused to kidnap the actress in 2011Kochi: Police have recovered a vehicle that was hired to kidnap an actress, the wife of a film producer, in Kochi in 2011. The accused in the case had told the police that the van was taken away to Coimbatore. But the police found the vehicle from Madavana near Panangad on the national highway.
The accused had hired the van from a travel agency in Kakkanad. It was returned the next morning. Circle inspector A. Ananthalal, who is handling the probe, said the travel agency owner later sold the van to a resident of Madavana.
Police took the accused to Ramada Hotel in Kumbalam and Bharat Hotel near Ernakulam Siva temple for gathering evidence.
The probe team also arrived at a wayside eatery in Vyttila on Saturday night with the accused. They had told police that they gathered at the eatery on the night of the kidnap bid which had ended in failure.
The accused Ashraf, Ebin Kuriakose, Bibin V. Paul and E.K. Suneesh were presented before the court as their remand period had ended. They were sent to jail. The custody of main accused Sunil Kumar aka Pulsar Suni ends on Monday.
Suni had planned to kidnap a young actress when she reached Ernakulam for a movie shoot, but things did not go as per his plan.
As producer Johny Sagarika's driver, Suni knew that the actress and a senior actress were expected to arrive at the Ernakulam railway station. Suni got an accomplice to meet Johny. He told the producer that he represented a luxury hotel and he could get rooms for actors at discount rates. He even offered to pick the actors and actresses from the railway station and Johny agreed.
A driver and another member of the gang waited at the station, but the younger actress did not turn up. The gang picked the other actress and an aide. The aide was dropped at Kumbalam. The actress grew suspicious when the vehicle started going in circles in the city. She called up her husband, a producer, who informed Johny in turn.
Johny immediately went to the hotel, but he was told that no booking was done there. Suni was with Johny all the time.
The gang members sensed that their plan had gone awry. They drove the van to the hotel and scooted.
Police came to know of the kidnap bid during the interrogation of Suni, who was arrested for the assault on a prominent actress in Kochi on February 17. Police later arrested actor Dileep for hatching the conspiracy to attack the actress and shoot explicit pictures of hers by using Suni.
Read more: Latest Kerala news | Uzhavoor Vijayan: a quick-witted entertainer and crowd-puller
