A 37-year-old businessman recently returned from Dubai was abducted in Bengaluru on July 16 by his former girlfriend and her accomplices, who demanded a ransom of ₹2.5 crore. The victim, Lawrence Melvani, was confined for seven days before managing to alert nearby residents and trigger a police rescue.
Melvani had been staying at a lodge in Indiranagar when his ex-girlfriend Mahima reached out, asking to meet. She arranged a cab for him, but after picking him up, the vehicle stopped near Koramangala, where three men forcibly entered, blindfolded him, and transported him to a serviced apartment.
There, the group extorted ₹1 lakh and two iPhones from him before physically assaulting him while pressing for the full ransom amount. On July 23, Melvani found an opportunity to contact residents of the adjacent apartment using the washroom, alerting them to his abduction.
Simultaneously, his family, unable to reach him for days, had already filed a missing person report. The Ashok Nagar police launched a manhunt and closed in on the kidnappers. However, before officers could reach the apartment, the accused tried to flee with Melvani in a car towards Tumakuru Road. In a bid to escape, they threw him out of the moving vehicle upon spotting police pursuit.
After an extended chase, police intercepted the vehicle and apprehended four suspects: Salman Pasha, Mohammed Nawaz, Mohammed Asif, and Mohammed Suhel. Mahima and three others remain at large, with a search underway.