Kidnapped 12-year-old girl from Pune rescued within 10 hours by police

Maahi was near a shop called My Mart located close to her residence at Queenstown Society, when at around 4 pm, a Chevrolet car rolled in and a man forced her into the vehicle

Within 10 days of a kidnapped five-year-old boy being rescued by Pimpri-Chinchwad police, a 12 year old girl who was kidnapped on Thursday afternoon was rescued by the police, less than 10 hours after the kidnapping.

Mahi Avandh Jain, 12 who was kidnapped from near her house in Chinchwad with her parents after being rescued, on Friday (HT PHOTO)

A delivery man and another man working for a fast food outlet in a mall in Aundh were arrested and a case under Indian Penal Code section 363 (kidnapping) was registered against the two at Chinchwad police station. The complaint in the matter was lodged by Alok Kataria, 35, a relative of the family. Maahi’s father, Avadh Jain works in an IT firm and mother, Nisha Jain works for a bank. A student of a local school, the girl, Maahi Avadh Jain had just returned from school and was in her school uniform.

She was near a shop called My Mart located close to her residence at Queenstown Society, when at around 4 pm, a Chevrolet car rolled in and a man forced her into the vehicle. This was witnessed by the people around, including the shopkeeper, police said. The police was called and the girl’s family members circulated a text message with her picture and details on social media.

Late in the night, the two kidnappers called the family and demanded ₹50 lakh ransom in exchange for the child’s freedom. The police traced the call back to the two and found them in a rented house in Nere area near Hinjewadi around 4 am on Friday. The house is suspected to have been rented by one of the two men.

This latest incident of kidnapping comes within 10 days of the Wakad police rescuing a fiveyear-old boy, who was kidnapped from the parking area of a residential society in Thergaon on November 5. In this case, the police arrested a caterer and an eggs supplier who were demanding a ransom of ₹ 5 lakh from his father.

Desire for easy money to start business led to kidnapping: Police

The two alleged kidnappers were identified as Nitin Satyavan Gajarmal, 25, a resident of Hinjewadi and Jitendra Pappuram Banjara, 21, a resident of Wakad.

According to the police, they were found roaming in the area for the past 7-8 days and were spotted in the CCTV footages. The police believe that was a form of reccee and that the two had made a study of the surroundings of various other buildings before zeroing in on Queenstown and Jain.

While one of the two makes burgers for a fast food outlet in a mall in Aundh, the other worked as a delivery executive for an online restaurant aggregator.

The two arrested men come from economically weak families and met on the job at a mall in Aundh. While Gajarmal’s mother works as a domestic help, his brother came from Osmanabad to Baramati to harvest sugarcane and earn some money. Banjara’s father, who has three other sons, fixes floor tiles at construction sites and supports them.

The two come from theatre and small-time cinema background and aspired to start their own restaurant one day. “This, they thought, was the easiest way of earning fast cash in order to start their restaurant,” said AK Padmanabhan, commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad Police.

“Around 10-15 days ago, they bought the golden car online and paid Rs 40,000 of the total Rs 44,000 cost of the car. The flat in Exerbia was rented for Rs 6,000 a few days ago and that was paid online as well. The rental paperwork, however, had not yet been done. The flat is owned by a Satara-based person called Tambe. He will also be made an accused in this case,” he added. They had succeeded in fleeing from Queenstown even as a shopkeeper tried to follow them.

The police had formed various teams which were helping the crime branch in the investigation even as the crime branch officials were doing the detection part. The police had traced the number to Exerbia Society in Mharunje. Having reached there, the police found the car in the parking space.

One woman from the building approached the team waiting outside Exerbia Society and asked what had happened. When the men revealed their identity to her, she told them about having heard a girl cry from a particular flat. The policemen meanwhile confirmed the flat number of the owner of the golden car with the security guard. After realising that the woman and the guard were talking about the same flat, the police headed there. Outside the flat, they found one of the two men and caught hold of him. The other one had locked the door from inside. The police broke in and found the girl as well as the other kidnapper in the house.

“There are 25 buildings in that society and every society has 16 flats. We could have either confirmed which flat they were in or checked every flat. We decided to not disturb people and stayed put till we got a confirmation of the flat number,” said Makarand Ranade, additional commissioner of police.

Kidnapped girl had good presence of mind: police chief

RK Padmanabhan, Commssioner of Pimpri Chinchwad Police, commended the 12-year-old Maahi Jain’s presence of mind during the entire incident.

The two men had taped her face and hands before putting a blanket on her and carrying her in the car, “like a package”, commissioner Padmanabhan said

She resisted and cried on the way till they reached the flat in Exerbia Society which the two had rented for the crime, said senior police inspector Prabhakar Shinde of Chinchwad police station.

“She told her age lesser than it was and also told lesser amount to the two kidnappers when they asked her about her parents’ gross income,” commissioner Padmanabhan said.

“They had first taped her mouth and later offered her gulabjamun (and ice-cream) which she refused for the fear of sedatives even though she was hungry,” he added. Once rescued, she asked additional commissioner Ranade for food and was then given biscuits.

The two were novices and made four calls and exchanged few text messages while negotiating. The location was such that one of them had to come out of the house to talk due to lack of network. Therefore, the location kept changing from Nere to Mharunje when they moved from the flat to the calling location.

The two were even concerned about the child’s resistance to eating. “This would have been more difficult had they been professionals. They made a few mistakes on the way which helped us trace them faster,” the city commissioner said.