The arrested persons were identified as Vijay Kumar, Baldev Raj (both residents of Nawanshahar district) and Harpreet Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur district. The police said the trio, with the help of two more accomplices, had kidnapped Sikandar Singh, a resident of Dehlon, when he had gone to Ludhiana on January 28.

Giving details of the case, SP City I Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill said Sikandar’s family had reported to the Model Town police that he had not reached home even after two days and that they had received a call for Rs 5 lakh as ransom.

Gill said Sikandar’s brother Inderjit Singh had told the police that the kidnappers had asked him to come to the Nawanshahar railway station with the money. The Model Town police sent a police team to Nawanshahar in plain clothes and nabbed the three persons when they were taking the money from Inderjit. The SP said the arrested persons had confessed during their interrogation that they had kidnapped Sikandar with the help of two more accomplices and taken him in a hired taxi. Gill said the police were trying to arrest the two other persons involved in the kidnapping. The search for the vehicle used in the crime was also on, he said.