[imagesource: Twitter / @Abramjee]

37-year-old Akter Pradhan was kidnapped in broad daylight last Friday.

Onlookers actually filmed the moment he was bundled into the back of a car and driven off.

It hasn’t taken long for the kidnappers’ ransom demands to be made, with footage of a bruised and battered Pradhan finding its way online.

Pradhan, the owner of Cheaper Chips Cash & Carry, a wholesale store in Mitchells Plain, is handcuffed and blindfolded. His torso is visible and he appears to have been severely beaten.

IOL with more:

“Give money,” Pradhan [below] tells the voice at the other end of the line.

“I’m dead already. Already I am dead, give money,” he says. This is part of the dramatic cellphone footage that has emerged of the businessman’s kidnapping…

Image: Supplied to The Daily Voice

Pradhan goes further, telling the person on the other end of the line to send money.

“If you want to save me, you can save me. Send money,” he says.

The kidnappers uploaded several videos to Pradhan’s Facebook story on Wednesday.

The Daily Voice has chosen to publish the video in this article. The outlet claims that Pradhan’s family has been contacted by the kidnappers.

In the video, one of the kidnappers in the background can be heard demanding a ransom of R20 million.

Speaking yesterday, police stated there were no new developments in the case and the investigation is ongoing.

Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee spoke with IOL about the steady rise of kidnapping syndicates targeting business owners:

[He] said the kidnapping of Bangladeshi nationals in South Africa is not a new thing, in fact, it was happening weekly in Gauteng.

“As for the modus operandi, such as in the video, these gangs are brazen, daring, and do not care. I don’t think this is an international syndicate, these are smaller syndicates, copycat syndicates trying to make a quick buck, hence the smaller ransom demands,” Abramjee said.

There has also been a notable uptick in kidnappings involving foreign nationals in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

Activist Hanif Loonat, who has spent more than 27 years fighting crime, criticised Police Minister Bheki Cele for saying these incidents were ‘self-inflicted for insurance payments’.

Cele saying something utterly ridiculous? We’ve seen this before.

[sources:iol&iol]