bengaluru a smalltime actor and his three friends who allegedly kidnapped a 42yearold businessman and extorted rs 19 lakh by posing as cops have landed in the custody of ramanagar district polices byrappa from bhoovalli near channapatna a vehicle parking lot contractor was abducted on july 4 by prem kumar 34 of kengeri and his associates m jayaram of moodalapalya sharath of seegehalli gate in tavarekere and m arun kumar of kr puram police said prem kumar has acted in small roles in tv serials and a couple of movies while arun kumar is an auto driver jayaram and sharath work in private firms for some time kumar was in debt and had borrowed money from many friends who were now forcing him to repayprobe revealed that prem kumar hatched the plan prem kumar met byrappa last year when he had gone for a film shoot and learnt that the latter was rich he started meeting byrappa whenever the latter came to the city to make some quick bucks prem came up with an extortion plan and directed arun kumar to drive a maruti swift car with jayaram and sharath in it posing as cops they intercepted byrappa on magaditavarakere road and charged him with being involved in a cheating case after bundling him into their car they blindfolded him and took him to an apartment near tavarekere there prem joined them and tortured byrappa finally byrappa managed to arrange rs 19 lakh from four different friends and they dropped byrappa back to the same place a police officer said byrappa recently lodged a complaint with magadi police who zeroed in on the accused based on cctv footage police have recovered rs 80000 and the car tnn