Police arrest five suspects over kidnapping case

JOHOR BARU: Five suspects have been arrested by the police for kidnapping a 41-year-old Bangladeshi man in an attempt to get a RM45,000 ransom.

The suspects, three Bangladeshi men, an Indian Muslim man and a local woman, aged between 25 and 38, were detained at a restaurant in Semenyih after they held the victim captive for less than 24 hours.

Iskandar Puteri OCPD Asst Comm Noor Hashim Mohamad said the initial investigation revealed that one of the Bangladeshi suspects had requested the ransom on Nov 12 from the victim's nephew, a 21-year-old contract worker at a farm in Gelang Patah.

"The suspect made the request via a phone call at around 8am by threatening to kill the victim if the money was not transferred to a bank account before 2pm on the same day," he said in a statement.

He added that the victim's nephew then received several phone calls soon after that from the suspects, forcing him to transfer the money immediately.

ACP Noor Hashim said a police report was lodged later that evening, adding that police had rescued the victim and arrested the five suspects at around 4.35pm on Monday.

"The local suspect will be remanded until Nov 17 while the rest will be remanded for 14 days," he said, adding that police also seized two cars, 10 mobile phones, a savings book and a key.

ACP Noor Hashim said the case was being investigated under Section 363 of the Penal Code for kidnapping and Section 385 of the Penal Code for putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion.