Police rescue kidnapped man from Nalasopara, arrest five

Police rescue a man in Mumbai kidnapped by a gang due to unpaid debt. Five arrested, including real estate agent victim owed money to.

MUMBAI: The police on Friday night rescued a 43-year-old man who was allegedly kidnapped by a gang of five persons and kept in illegal detention in Nalasopara as he could not repay the money he had taken from one of the accused.

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The arrested accused are Abdul Darji, 42, Rajkumar Yadav, 30, Mujeeb Shaikh, 38, Sahil Shaikh, 49, and Lukash Rastogi, 43.

According to the police, the victim, a real estate agent, lives in Navi Mumbai along with his wife and four children. He used to live in Ghatkopar and knew the accused through common friends. The victim had promised the accused that he would help them get houses and prepare documents and had taken money from them, said a police officer.

He also borrowed money from Darji, who is into the real estate business. The accused and victim knew each other for several years, but the victim was avoiding returning the money, and therefore, he planned to kidnap him.

According to the FIR, the incident occurred on March 7, when he came to Govandi at his in-law’s place. The accused came in a vehicle and made him board it around 7pm, and took him to Nalasopara. His wife was informed after one of his relatives saw four people pushing the victim in the car. The wife then came to Govandi and, around 11:30pm approached the police. A kidnapping case was registered against four unknown persons.

During the investigation, the police found after enquiring that the car in which they had kidnapped him had a sticker ‘Aliza’. “We started scanning the CCTV and found footage of the car,” Shashank Shelke, senior inspector, Deonar police station, said. “After further investigation, we found that the accused had gone to Nalasopara. A police team rushed there, and with the help of the local police, we managed to nab four accused on Saturday and the victim was rescued, said police sub-inspector Raju Salunkhe of Deonar police station.

During further investigation, Rastogi was found to have helped in the kidnapping, and he was arrested from Jogeshwari on Sunday. All accused were produced in the court on Monday and remanded to judicial custody.