An Indian businessman was kidnapped on Saturday in the Alto-Maé neighborhood of Maputo as a way of pressuring him to pay a debt of around four million meticais.

Quoted by the portal THE COUNTRY, According to the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), a group of criminals, now in the custody of the authorities, went to collect the debt in Maputo city. Unsuccessful, they forcibly took the citizen to a residence in the city of Matola.

Among those accused of the crime is a woman who denies her involvement, claims to be a lawyer and the victim's sister-in-law.

"I didn't have any Indian citizens kidnapped. I went to him alone, and on foot. There are cameras in his house, you can see that. I wanted to talk to him, to collect the money he owes me and he hasn't wanted to pay for a long time," she said.

According to SERNIC, she is the mastermind of the crime.

According to the portal we have quoted, the circumstances in which the crime took place have not been properly explained. SERNIC says that its intervention resulted in the safe rescue of the victim.

"They kept the individual from eight o'clock until around five o'clock, when he was taken, after supposedly entering into an agreement in which the victim undertook to pay the amount within a week. In the meantime, we are talking about a case in which all the circumstances point to the occurrence of the legal type of kidnapping crime," explained Hilário Lole, SERNIC's spokesperson in Maputo City.