Mysuru Real Estate Tycoon Kidnapped at Gunpoint, Rescued in Midnight Highway Operation

Late on December 6, prominent Mysuru real estate businessman Lokesh walked out of the upscale Heritage Club in Vijayanagar after a social evening, unaware that five masked men had been waiting in the shadows for weeks. As he approached his car, the assailants pounced from a white Tata Sumo SUV parked nearby, overpowered him within seconds, bundled him into the rear seat at gunpoint, and sped away into the night, leaving behind shocked onlookers and a trail of terror recorded crystal-clear on multiple CCTV cameras around the club premises.

The situation turned even more menacing when, barely fifteen minutes after the abduction, one kidnapper used Lokesh’s seized mobile phone to call his wife at their residence. Speaking in a low, threatening voice, the caller demanded an immediate payment of ₹30 lakh in cash, explicitly warning that any involvement of police or delay in arranging the money would result in Lokesh never returning home alive, plunging the family into panic and despair.

Defying the chilling threat, Lokesh’s wife kept her composure and immediately contacted the Vijayanagar Police Station control room, providing crucial initial details that set off one of the fastest anti-kidnapping operations in recent Karnataka history. Senior officers instantly formed a special task force combining cyber-cell experts for live mobile tracking, highway patrol units, and plain-clothes teams, while simultaneously pulling footage from dozens of CCTV cameras along probable escape routes toward Mandya and Bengaluru.

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The breakthrough came just past 3 a.m. when the moving signal of Lokesh’s phone was pinpointed near Pandavapura, approximately 50 kilometres from Mysuru. Acting on real-time intelligence, police vehicles converged from multiple directions and executed a perfectly timed roadblock on a dark stretch of the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway, surrounding the Tata Sumo and forcing the kidnappers to surrender without a fight; a bound and gagged Lokesh was found alive in the back seat and freed on the spot.

Preliminary interrogation has revealed that the five-member gang, including individuals with previous criminal records, had conducted detailed reconnaissance of Lokesh’s daily routine for more than fifteen days, identifying the Heritage Club exit as the ideal low-security ambush point. Authorities have seized the vehicle, weapons, ropes, and multiple mobile phones, and the accused are now facing serious charges of kidnapping for ransom, criminal conspiracy, and extortion as the investigation continues to uncover possible larger networks or motives behind the daring crime.

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