Kidnap scare as cops whisk away businessman

COIMBATORE: The entire Coimbatore police force went on a high alert on Sunday evening to trace an ‘abducted’ businessman in the city only to wind up the operation within a couple of hours after learning that the ‘victim’ was actually arrested by policemen from Dindigul.Around 6 pm, when Additional Director General (Law and Order) of Police S George was holding a review meeting of top officials at the office of the Inspector General of Police (Tamil Nadu West Zone), a man met him and submitted a complaint alleging that his son Ashwin Karthik, a businessman, was abducted by some persons from his house in the upmarket Race Course area.Immediately, top police officials, who were present at the meeting, swung into action and alerted police stations in the city through wireless to check all vehicles to trace the ‘victim’. Within no time several police personnel landed on the streets and mounted a surveillance operation stopping passing cars at important junctions such as Ramanathapuram and Tiruchy Road to check if the ‘abducted’ businessman was inside.As news about the ‘kidnap’ spread, some residents and evening shoppers panicked as it brought black memories of last year’s kidnapping and murder of two school children Muskan and Rithik.However, all this drama ended in an anti-climax when around 8.15 p.m., the policemen received a communication on their wireless sets asking them to call off the search operations as the ‘victim’ was traced.Later, it transpired that Ashwin Karthik was actually arrested by sleuths of the Dindigul District Crime Branch in connection with a cheating case in which a local court there had issued an arrest warrant against the businessman.Police said, “Karthik’s father had mistaken it to be a case of abduction as policemen in civvies had whisked him away from his house.”A team led by Crime Branch inspector Murugan from Dindigul then took away Karthik to Dindigul by road.