By IANS
Malappuram (Kerala) : No breakthrough has yet been made in a case of kidnapping of a 40-year-old restaurant owner and the police have been further baffled by ransom calls made to the family from international numbers.
Abdul Razzak, resident of Vengara near here and owner of a restaurant in Angamali near Kochi, went missing Nov 5 while he was on his way to Mangalore, Karnataka.
For the last few days now, Razzak’s brother Siddique has been getting ransom calls from a mobile number originating from outside the country, and this has baffled the police.
“The callers are demanding Rs.50 million for Razzak’s release. They are not making any other demands,” said Shaji, sub-inspector at Vengara police station, investigating the case.
In their preliminary investigations, the police traced the number to a South Korean mobile operator.
“The calls are indeed originating from a number outside the country and it is suspected to be a Korean number. We have to probe further to get it confirmed. We also have to probe whether there is some other mischief behind the entire episode,” the police officer said.
Siddique, who runs the restaurant with his brother, told IANS that the kidnappers called him again Thursday.
“They were talking in Hindi. They are asking me to hand over Rs. 50 million to a ‘Bhai’. But they are not telling me when or where. They also allowed me to talk to my brother. He is pleading with me to pay the amount and get him released as they are torturing him,” Siddique added.