BANGALORE: Gangadasappa, 40, paid a heavy price for playing truant with his creditors: he lost his testicles.

On the night of August 4, the moneylenders kidnapped and sedated the realtor, before surgically removing his testicles, in Anjananagar, near Magadi, West Bangalore. They later admitted him to KIMS Hospital, where he is still recovering. He is out of danger, police said, quoting doctors.

A city police head constable ’s wife, who is also a schoolteacher, and four others involved in the crime are on the run.

Gangadasappa alias Dasappa is a resident of Visvesvaraya Layout, near Sunkadakatte, off Magadi Road, and is a Herohalli gram panchayat member.

The amount under dispute is said to be Rs 25 lakh, loaned to him by Nanjunda, though Gangadasappa denies it.

He told TOI that he boarded a bus from the city to Magadi late on August 4, en route to Kunigal. On reaching Magadi bus stand, he called his younger brother, a resident of the town, but he didn’t respond.

Within a few minutes, Nanjunda and three others approached Gangadasappa and asked him for their money. “Nanjunda claimed that I owed him more than Rs 25 lakh, and demanded that I pay it immediately or hand over some signed blank cheques. I said I wouldn’t,” Gangadasappa said.

A scuffle broke out between Nanjunda and Gangadasappa. Alerted by the public, Magadi town police arrived and took the group to the police station. “Nanjunda told police I owed him some money. Police said it was a civil dispute and asked us to go out and solve the issue amicably,” he said.

Gangadasappa had walked out of the station and covered some distance, when Nanjunda and the others attacked him and bundled him into a car. They took him to the house of Kavita Ganganna in Anjananagar. Kavita is a teacher with the government high school in Gidadada Konappanahall, near Magadi. Gangadasappa, who is president of the school development committee, knew her since he visited the school often.

“I was gagged. Kavita and Nanjunda stuffed sleeping pills into my mouth and l fell asleep,” he said.

Gangadasappa woke up screaming the next morning. “I was in acute pain. I was bleeding from my private parts. I started screaming. Fearing I would die, they shifted me to KIMS Hospital and fled,” he said.

Doctors discovered that Gangadasappa had been operated on, and his testicles removed.

“Alerted by KIMS, we rushed to hospital and took Gangadasappa’s statement. We are looking for the four accused, including Kavita and Nanjunda. Kavita’s husband Ganganna is a head constable in Bangalore,” Magadi police said.

They said preliminary investigations showed that Gangadasappa and Nanjunda had a monetary dispute .

