Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Aug 7: Richard Marian Nazareth, who was rescued from the clutches of abductors at Rajasthan, said that a gang of robbers had physically tortured him. He also said that the gang members who were equipped with lethal weapons, had not given anything to him except water for three days.

"I had gone to Rajasthan to check veracity of the information provided by an unknown person from Bharatpur, Rajasthan, that they would provide generators at low price. The gang of robbers, which collected cellphone number of Arun D'Souza through internet, told him that they would be supplying four generators at a very low price. As discussions were on between Arun and the gang members over phone since two months, Arun asked me to personally visit Rajasthan and check the availability of generators. I left on July 28, reached Bharatpur on July 30, and stayed in a lodge,

"I called the number provided to me, and I was picked up at around 12 noon in a pick-up vehicle. After covering a distance of about 35 km, they threatened and snatched away my mobile phone and power bank, and Rs 1,000 in cash I had with me, besides forcibly withdrawing Rs 5,000 by using my ATM. I was then tied up to a plant which looked like sugarcane in open field. The gang had eight to 12 members, and three to four persons always stood guard day and night. They had machetes, swords, guns etc," he explained.

He also said that the gang had called Arun D'Souza to demand a ransom of Rs 10 lac for his release. "They had threatened to kill me in case of failure to pay ransom," he stated, addressing a press conference here on Saturday August 6.