CHENNAI: A 60-year-old former bank official who took out a matrimonial advertisement in a Tamil daily a few days ago got a rude shock when a potential bride called him to the Koyambedu bus-stand. For, no sooner he reached, the woman and four men bundled him into a car and took him to a bank branch in Tambaram where they asked him to hand over the Rs 35 lakh he had in his account. However, the man alerted officials at the bank who called police and the gang fled.

In his complaint to the Tambaram police, Keelkattalai resident V Ramamurthy, a divorcee, said he had retired from a private bank recently and lived alone. He said he wanted to get married and took out a matrimonial advertisement in a Tamil daily. On Tuesday, a woman calling herself Vaishnavi said she had seen the matrimonial ad. She said she was 35 and wanted to know about his financial position and other details. She then called him to the Koyambedu bus terminus that evening, the complaint said.

Ramamurthy went to the bus terminus at the scheduled hour and met Vaishnavi who began talking to him. Within minutes, four men drove up in a car. The men bundled him in with Vaishnavi joining them, Ramamurthy said. The gang members kept driving around the city and its suburbs for two days, he said.

On Thursday morning, they drove with him to a bank branch in Tambaram where he had an account. There, they asked him to withdraw the amount and hand it over. Ramamurthy, however, managed to contact some bank officials and said he had been abducted . The officials alerted the Tambaram police and a team rushed to the spot. The gang members who were in the parked car fled on seeing the police team arrive.

Police believe the gang had planned the abduction and used the woman as the bait. Tambaram police inspector Albin Raj said, “The gang had seen the advertisement and planned the kidnapping but Ramamurthy had the presence of mind to inform officials in the bank about what had happened. We are now looking for the gang members.”

