Birmingham kidnap victim 'was bound and gagged'

Apr 27 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

A SCRAPYARD boss today told how he saw the man at the centre of Birmingham’s “bomb car” scare bound and gagged with gas canisters wrapped around his body.

Chaudhary Mohammed Arif said he thought the man was lying unconscious in the car with plastic ties binding his limbs and about six gas bottles taped to his body.

The man, in his 30s and from Birmingham, spent at least seven hours lying in the R-registered white Nissan Micra which was dumped in a deserted industrial estate.

The victim feared for his life after being kidnapped and told he had been wired to a bomb.

He is today being treated in hospital for a suspected broken leg as the police hunt for his abductors behind the “reprehensible” crime continued.

The car had been dumped at the junction of Landor Street and Clarel Drive.

Mr Arif, 44, boss of Condor Auto Spares, said: “I could see the man lying in the car, with plastic cable ties around his hands and feet and there was a cloth in his mouth that was wrapped around his head.

“There was also five or six canisters taped to his chest. I think he was unconscious, he wasn’t moving but I could see him breathing.