KARACHI, Feb 6: Three men were arrested red-handed on Tuesday while withdrawing half a million rupees from a bank in Clifton. They had kidnapped the bank’s customer from his house and brought him to the bank to encash the cheque.

Police said three dacoits barged into flat FF-1, Block -73, Seaview Apartments, around 9am and took 25-year-old Naraish Gangwani and his two domestic servants, Ilyas and Abdur Razzaq, hostage at gunpoint. They looted cash, jewellery, a mobile phone and a licensed pistol from the victim, who lived alone in the flat.

The dacoits asked the victim to give them a cheque of Rs1 million. The victim told them that he did not have that much money in his account. He told them that he had only half million rupees in the account, but the bank would not give them that huge amount.

The dacoits tied Gangwani’s cook, Abdur Razzaq, and took the victim and his other servant on two motorcycles to a bank in the vicinity to withdraw the money.

However, Razzaq managed to free himself and informed a neighbour about the incident who called the police.

The SHO Darakhshan, Inspector Zia ul Hasan Rizvi, told Dawn three police teams, one of them headed by him, rushed immediately to three different branches of the bank in the vicinity. The team led by him reached the bank’s branch on Tauheed Commercial where the Naraish and the bandits were present. The other servant, Ilyas fled when he saw the police approaching the bank. The three arrested dacoits were identified as Farooq Ali, Abid Ali and Ameer Khan. They belong to interior Sindh.

The SHO said the bank staff had also informed the police about some foul play after the victim managed to alert them through his eye movements. “The bank slowed down the process of cash withdrawal which helped the police reach the spot,” he added.

The SHO said during preliminary interrogation, the arrested men said Ilyas was also involved and he was the masterminded behind the robbery.