3 kidnap chicken sellers, demand `4L

Three people were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly kidnapping two chicken sellers and trying to extort Rs4 lakh from them.

According to the police, Rafik Shaikh, 26, and Yashik Patel, 28, sell chicken in a market in Panvel.

They had taken Rs1 lakh from Salim Shaikh, 30, Uday Deshpande, 29, and Shahrukh Multani, 33, who used to supply them chicken. All of them are residents of Panvel.

“Shaikh and Patel were unable to return money to the suspects because of some personal problems. They kept asking them to return the money. When they didn’t, they planned to kidnap the duo,” said Sunil Bajare, senior police inspector from Panvel city police station.

On Wednesday around 3pm, the suspects kidnapped Rafik and Yashik in a four-wheeler from Takka and took them to Nadeem farmhouse near Karjat.

“They asked them for Rs4 lakh and threatened them with dire consequences if they did not act accordingly. When the victims said they were unable to pay such a huge amount, the suspects beat them with iron rods,” Bajare said.

Meanwhile, one of the victims’ friends Sameer Qureshi had seen three kidnap the duo.

He informed the Panvel police about it. The police immediately formed a team to solve the case.

“Acting on a tip-off, our officials raided the farmhouse and arrested the suspects before they could flee. Both the victims were rescued. It took us only two hours to solve the case,” Bajare added.

The police have booked the accused under sections 364a and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They were produced before the judicial court on Thursday.

“We are investigating the case to find out if the suspects used to same modus operandi to extort money from others too,” another police officer said.

BACHCHAN KUMAR