Senior police officials said that the gang was involved in numerous cases of kidnapping and blackmailing in different places including Karimganj, Silchar, Lumding and Guwahati in Assam and Shillong in Meghalaya.
The five -- Tamanna Nath, Bapan Nath, Aftabuddin, Jamiruddin Ali and Riazuddin Ali -- were picked up by crack teams of Guwahati police from several places in Assam and Meghalaya during an operation last night.
Tamanna Nath (25), hailing from Karimganj in Barak Valley and wife of Bapan Nath, was the leader of the gang.
Tamanna used to contact wealthy men over phone and entrap them and the gang later collected ransom after kidnapping the victims.
The gang was involved in the kidnapping of the son of a Guwahati-based hotel owner on November 18 last year. Tamanna had trapped the victim and taken him to a private resort on the outskirts of Guwahati, where the other gang members had abducted him and taken him to Lanka in Nagaon district.
Ransom worth Rs 50 lakh was reportedly collected from the hotel owner in exchange for his son's life. The son was released a few days later.
City police followed up the trail after the kidnapping incident and managed to track down the gang after an investigation lasting over two months.