Osaka prefectural police on Wednesday arrested five men, including a 42-year-old company executive, on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury after a lending dispute turned violent, the force announced. Police did not disclose whether the suspects admit or deny the allegations.
The suspect named as the ringleader is Shuta Okubo, an executive of a company in Nakasu, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka. Police allege that in mid-March, in a cafe in the Koraibashi district of Chuo Ward, Osaka, the group threatened a 51-year-old man who handles accounting for a medical corporation.
“If you run, I'll chase you to the end. Open a hole in your hand yourself with this.”the threat police say the group made, according to the Sankei Shimbun
The man was made to injure the back of his left hand with the drill himself, and the group then took ¥2 million in cash from him on a nearby street, police said. A malfunction in the drill meant no hole was bored and the hand injury was slight.
The same man suffered broken ribs and other serious injuries after being beaten around the abdomen with a metal object. The cafe is run by the chairman of the medical corporation that employs the man, and it was outside business hours at the time.
Dispute over how borrowed money was used
According to police, the man borrowed money from Okubo and the others on the pretext of funding the medical corporation's operations, but used it for a different purpose. The suspects learned of this, and police believe the dispute grew from there.
Police announced the arrests on Wednesday and have not said how the five men became connected to the accountant.