Five Punjab residents were abducted by a gang of Punjabi youths in Malaysia.

The case came to light with the arrest of a Nawanshahr-based youth. They were abducted last month and later released after their families back home paid a ransom.

Harpreet Singh from Nawanshahr was one of the gang members who was arrested by the Jalandhar police on Saturday and sent in police remand by a court on Sunday. He revealed that two Pakistanis were heading the gang.

Jalandhar resident Gurpreet Singh and his wife Monika approached the police on Friday alleging they were held captive in Malaysia last month with three other people from Gurdaspur and Jalandhar.

They were held for five days from November 8 to November 12 in Serdang city in Selangor, Malaysia.

According to the police complaint, Gurpreet and Monika had gone to Malaysia a few months back where they met the accused – Harpreet from Nawanshahr and Gurdaspur resident Rupinder Singh.

“Both of them told us that they could send us to a better destination like US, Canada or Europe. We came back and then Jalandhar resident Amritpal Singh and a Gurdaspur-based couple Harpreet Singh and Pawandeep Kaur went with us to Malaysia. After reaching there we were held captives,” the couple said.

Monika’s father was made to deposit Rs 10 lakh in a back account in Delhi and Gurpreet’s Canada-based brother coughed up ransom of Rs 13 lakh.

The other three captives were also made to pay several lakh and then they were released, they said.

A police officer said that they arrested Nawanshahr resident Harpreet and were looking for Rupinder as they had learnt that he had come to India. He added police registered a case on Friday.

In October, three Punjabi men were kidnapped in Hong Kong after they were lured into striking a property deal with a Hong Kong based company owned by Punjabis. The Hong Kong police arrested two Pakistanis and two youths were arrested in Patiala in relation to the case.