Bengaluru, Aug 30 (DHNS): Muniyappa alias Ishwar, an aspiring film actor and producer, got his first act all wrong and instead ended up cooling his heels in prison.

Muniyappa’s dream to fund his yet-to-be completed debut movie Challenger backfired after he was arrested for kidnapping and blackmailing two engineering students, Eshan Bapat and one of his girl classmates.

Eshan, a second year student at the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology in Yelahanka, is the son of the managing director of the Kirloskar Electric company here.

Muniyappa (29), a resident of Singapura Layout near M S Palya, Hasan Dongri (26), also a wannabe actor, and three others were arrested in Yelahanka on Sunday.

Muniyappa

The plot is no less from any potboiler. Dongri, who earlier worked as a personal assistant to a Kannada heroine, was in need of money to complete his film Beera.

Initially, Muniyappa and Dongri hatched a plan to kidnap a high-profile personality from Sadashivanagar. However, the plan could not be executed owing to tight police security in the VIP area.

Then, they zeroed in on Eshan. They followed Eshan for two weeks before kidnapping him. They had even managed to secretly film and take photographs of Eshan and the girl.

On August 23, the two along with Jagadish (32), a resident of Yelahanka, Jagannath (28) and Manoj (19), both from Yelahanka New Town, executed the plan to kidnap Eshan.

They even called Eshan’s mother from his mobile phone and informed her about the kidnap. However, the small-time criminals, who are involved in petty crimes and chain-snatching, released Eshan the following day when they realised the police were on their trail.

Upset at the failed bid to make money, Muniyappa and Dongri changed their plan of action and decided to blackmail the girl by threatening to release her photos and videos.

The girl, however, informed the police, who laid a trap to ensure the abductors wouldn’t get away this time.

Plan of action

The police handed the girl some money and sent her in an autorickshaw, with an inspector disguised as the driver. When Muniyappa and Dongri kept changing the location, she informed them that the auto driver was refusing to go further and was misbehaving with her. Hearing this, Dongri asked her to wait near Hebbal.

When he came to collect the money, the auto driver and other officers in plainclothes nabbed him before arresting the other four.

As a college student in 2008, Muniyappa abducted the daughter of a former MLA from Chikkaballapur district and married her. Later, she divorced him after coming to know about his criminal activities.

During interrogation, the suspect admitted to dacoity and chain-snatching in various localities in Bengaluru, Hassan district, Araskiere and Banawara. He admitted to selling the stolen ornaments and using the money for his movie.

Muniyappa had started Our Education Centre to help students get employment. He collected money from them and shut down the centre, the police said.