E-Paper
Abducted man taken to Pune, made to pay ₹37L
A managing director of a mercantile credit society was kidnapped from Kamothe, taken to Pune where he was held hostage for a day and let go only after he paid ₹
A managing director of a mercantile credit society was kidnapped from Kamothe, taken to Pune where he was held hostage for a day and let go only after he paid ₹ 37.1 lakh to his kidnappers. The victim had gone to Kamothe from south Mumbai after a man called him to discuss a fixed deposit of ₹5 crore.
Satyanarayan Rao Bhandari, 45 , who is originally from Hyderabad, heads the AP Mercantile Cooperative Credit Society Limited. Bhandari arrived in Mumbai in February to open a new branch of the credit society. On March 6, he received a call from a man named Ankit Jain. Jain said he owns a garment shop in Kamothe and wants to deposit ₹5 crore in the society.
When Bhandari asked Jain to meet him at their new branch in Bhuleshwar in south Mumbai, Jain cited the long distance and asked Bhandari if he could come to his Navi Mumbai shop.
Bhandari and the branch manager Syed Moinuddin went to Kamothe by train. At the railway station, a man approached them and told Bhandari that Jain had sent a car to pick him up. The person asked Moinuddin to wait at the station.
“Two more people got in the SUV. They snatched Bhandari’s phone, forced him to unlock it and demanded a ransom of ₹1 crore. When he said he does not have the money, they went through his messages to check his account balance,” said an officer from Kamothe police station.
The two assaulted Bhandari in the car and took him to Pune where they kept him at a farmhouse. The accused made him transfer ₹37.1 lakh in their account and left and a day later, dropped him at a bus stand on Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The accused gave him a ticket to Mumbai and put him in a bus.
“The case was registered in Nagpur and has been transferred to us. We will record the statement of the complainant when he arrives here on Monday,” said Babasaheb Tupe, senior inspector at Kamothe police station.
