Kasargod : Kottayam West police arrested three persons in connection with kidnapping and extorting money using young girls on Sep 3, Wednesday.

The arrested are identified as Mohammed Ashraf alias Cochin Ashraf (24), a resident of Kumble Dharmattadka Korikundu, Hassainar alias Karate Hassainar (45), a resident of Kumble Pervad and Godson alias Yesudas (30), resident of Fort Cochin.

Police arrested Mohammed Ashraf and Godson from Guruvayur and Hassainar from Kumble. The police are in search of seven more including two girls in this case.

The prime accused in the case, Nasir, a resident of Kumble Pookatte, Kishore and Riyaz, residents of Mattancheri are absconding.

The accused were exhorting money from the innocent men, by forcibly making them stand next to nude girls and taking pictures and videos and threatening them of publish the photos.

The arrest was made based on the complaint filed by the family of a chartered accountant (CA) from Kottayam. It is said that the group had a total of Rs 15 lakh from him on three occasions but while he refused to pay on the fourth time the mount of Rs 5 lakhs they demanded, they threatened to kill him.

Based on the information provided by the victim’s family, the police started looking for the accused and succeeded in tracing three of them with the help of mobile phone trackers.