Six Indians were arrested yesterday by Yan Nawa police at a rented house in Sukhumvit Soi 109, in Samut Prakan, for allegedly kidnapping two of their compatriots and demanding a ransom payment for their release.
Police were alerted to the kidnappings by another Indian national, identified as Shanjiv Kumar, who claimed that his two friends were taken by a gang of Indian men, who had demanded two million rupees from the victims’ relatives in India, or just under eight hundred thousand baht, for their safe return.
Shanjiv and his two friends arrived in Thailand on April 5th for a 10-day visit, after which they planned to travel to Vietnam on April 15th. Shanjiv’s visa application was rejected, however, leaving him unable to visit Vietnam with his two friends.
On April 15th, the three men hailed a taxi, from a hotel in Bangkok’s Silom area, to take them to a house in Sukhumvit Soi 109. The cabbie, Wirat Lakchai, told Yan Nawa police that he didn’t sense anything suspicious about the three men during the journey.
Shanjiv claimed that he subsequently received phone calls from relatives of his two friends, informing him that the two had been kidnapped and demanding the ransom payment.
They asked Shanjiv to inform the Thai police, which eventually led to the rescue of the two victims and the arrest of the six suspects.
