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Goa businessman abducted for ransom rescued, five held
Naveen Patel was kidnapped from his shop by two men who posed as customers seeking to buy plywood but later locked him in his shop and threatened him with a gun and a knife on August 4.
The Goa Police on Thursday arrested five people for kidnapping a plywood businessman and demanding a ransom of ₹1 crore from his wife for his release, Goa Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena, said.
Naveen Patel, the 30-year-old businessman, was kidnapped from his shop at Thivim, within the jurisdiction of the Colvale Police Station in North Goa and later taken to an abandoned building where he was blindfolded and held while the kidnappers waited for the ransom. His wife filed a complaint on Thursday morning claiming that her husband had been abducted and she had received a call for ransom.
Patel was kidnapped from his shop by one Birendra Kumar, 26, a native of Bihar and Nishant Mogan, 22, a native of Mangalore who posed as customers seeking to buy plywood but later locked Patel in his shop and threatened him with a gun and a knife on August 4.
The kidnappers then placed a call to his wife using a stolen phone and sought a ransom of ₹1 crore.
“After investigation we found the location of Birendra Kumar and Nishant and the two were picked up and thoroughly interrogated and they revealed that the trader was in an unused building. He was blindfolded, was threatened and they were asking for money. The police teams identified and detained three other accused. There were a total of five men who were involved and they will be prosecuted based on the evidence against them,” Meena said.
Manjunath Baiganoor, 28, Sujit Kesarkar and Subhash Bhosle, 51, who were guarding the kidnapped businessman, were also arrested.
Mogan was earlier an employee of Patel and used to work in his shop thus knew his former employer’s family members as well.
“Were we not to act, his life could have been in danger,” Meena said.
