Maputo, 23 Oct (AIM) – The Mozambican police have arrested four people in Maputo, accused of kidnapping a businessman of Indian nationality, supposedly to recover a debt of four million meticais (62,500 US dollars, at the current exchange rate).
According to the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic), the kidnapping occurred on Saturday when a woman and three men went to see the Indian businessman to demand that he pay the money owed.
To put pressure on him, they forced the Indian to accompany them to a house in the southern city of Matola.
The woman, who says she is the Indian’s sister-in-law, denies kidnapping him.
“I did not order the kidnapping of any Indian citizen”, she said, cited in Monday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.
“I went to see him alone and on foot”, she said. “I wanted to speak with him and collect the money he owes me, and which he has not wanted to pay back for a long time”.
One of the men accused of taking part in the abduction, said he had seen the Indian in the car used by the woman, but did not know he was being kidnapped.
“I don’t know anything”, he said. “I saw my employer talking with the man and suddenly they were arguing. Then she got into the car and we went to her brother’s house to talk”.
Sernic Maputo spokesperson Hilario Lole said that it was thanks to police intervention that the businessman (who was not named) was rescued. But he also claimed that a deal had been struck over the debt.
“They kept the man from 08.00 to about 17.00”, Lole said. “They supposedly reached an agreement under which the victim agreed to pay the sum within a week. This is a case where all the circumstances indicate that the crime of kidnapping took place”.
(AIM)
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