An Indian national kidnapped in South Africa has claimed that his abductors had beaten him up and had asked his family in Punjab for a ransom of Rs 15 lakh.
Speaking for the first time since the incident last month, Makan Singh, 25, on Saturday said that the kidnappers, who spoke with an Indian accent, had demanded the telephone number of his family in Punjab's Kambra village.
Singh, a DVD hawker in the town of Stanger, about 75km north of Durban, said he had since spoken to his family and they informed him that somebody had demanded Rs 15 lakh for his safe return.
Singh said he was abducted on August 15 after he received a telephone call from an unknown caller and was told to meet at the Stanger General Hospital. He said at the hospital he was asked by a man to follow him into a car.
"When I got into the car, I noticed there were three other men. One of them pushed a gun into the side of my body and another placed a handkerchief over my mouth. I blacked out immediately," Singh claimed.
When he refused to give them the phone number of his family, they beat him with a belt and an iron rod. "After three days, I gave them the number and one of them demanded that I inform my brother to pay the ransom. But my brother told me that he did not have the money," said Singh.
He said he was asked to get ready and pushed into a car. He was driven around and then dumped in Durban.
Police spokesperson, Bala Naidoo, said they were investigating the claims made by Singh.
"We will interview him through an interpreter as he mainly speaks Punjabi," said Naidoo.
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