Gurgaon, Oct 26 (IANS): A 29-year-old businessman and his accomplice were held in Gurgaon, Haryana, for plotting to extort a ransom of Rs.50 lakh from his father after staging his own "kidnapping", police said Saturday.

Ankit Shrivastava, with an MBA degree from Pune and a resident of the posh Vatika City in Sector 49 of Gurgaon, was arrested for conspiring in "kidnapping".

His father Mahesh Shrivastava, who is the vice president of a multinational firm in Sector 32, Gurgaon, lodged a complaint with police Friday that his son had been kidnapped. He said that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs.50 lakh.

"A team headed by crime branch Sector 46 chief Yashwant Singh was given the task of solving the case," Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Sharma told reporters.

Ankit Shrivastava was arrested from Palwal-Sohna Road. He had been waiting in a car there for the ransom amount to be delivered.

Police said that the young man was under a debt of Rs.45 lakh and had hatched the conspiracy to pay off the debtors.

"Ankit, a cement dealer, was running a loss but pretended to be very successful in business," Sharma said, adding that he often held parties for friends and gave expensive gifts to his wife.

Two years ago he had received large sums of money from his father to clear his debts, the police officer said.

Mukesh, 27, a resident of Alipur village in Gurgaon district, was also arrested along with Ankit Shrivastava. Mukesh, a security guard, had helped in the conspiracy and made the ransom call. He had been promised Rs.1.5 lakh for his part in the crime.

The two men were produced in court and sent to judicial custody Saturday.