PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA - Police foiled two unrelated kidnapping cases and rescued three victims who were held for a total ransom of about RM125,000 ($51,000) over a span of three days.

The victims, all Bangladeshis in their 30s and working as sub-contractors, were confined by their kidnappers who were waiting for the ransoms to be delivered by the victims' families from overseas.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Datuk Ku Chin Wah said the first group of kidnappers were nabbed when police set up an ambush at the ransom pick-up spot at a vegetable farm near Ringlet, Cameron Highlands, around 8pm last Tuesday.

Police were able to rescue one victim who was abducted two days earlier after they arrested the kidnapper who arrived to collect the RM25,000 ransom while four more, who watched over the victim, were arrested at a nearby house.

"The five kidnappers included four Bangladesh nationals and an Indonesian woman aged between 25 to 30," he said.

In the second case, SAC Ku said police rescued two more men who were chained by another group of kidnappers in an apartment at Lagoon Perdana, near here yesterday.

"We have arrested two of the kidnappers, a 32-year-old Bangladesh national and a 29-year-old Indonesian woman," he said.

One of the victim's friend said the victim's family had paid around RM32,500 out of the RM100,000 demanded by the kidnappers.

"The kidnappers would call the family and let them hear the screams of the victims as they tortured them to force the family to pay the ransom," he said.

Police are still looking for four more members of the group.