MCOCA slapped on seven kidnappers

They abducted two jewellers, demanded ransom, took away gold jewellery

With the arrest of seven people, the Navi Mumbai police claimed to have busted a huge kidnapping and extortion racket that had been operating across Maharashtra for the past several years.

All seven accused have been booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The police have also recovered two cars and gold jewellery from them.

According to the police, the gang kidnapped two jewellers — one is from Kharghar, the second from Ahmedabad — from Kharghar on March 25. They later called their family members and demanded Rs1-crore ransom.

When the families said that they were unable to pay such a huge amount, the gang brought down the amount to Rs10 lakh.

After three days of kidnapping them, the Ahmedabad jeweller’s family gave Rs2.5 lakh and the accused released both of them but took away his gold jewellery.

“The family members of the Ahmedabad jeweller got scared and they tried to get him released by negotiating the extortion. The Kharghar family registered an FIR with us. We had been investigating the case since then,” said a police officer from Kharghar police station.

The seven gang members have arrested over the past two weeks from different places of the state. They have been identified as Appa Mane, 25, Nitin Kadam alias Katappa, 26, Arvind Pawar alias Pinto, 28, Tejash Patil, 24, Amol Mane, 22, Sandeepan Bhosale, 42, and Dhanaji Sakarkar, 35.

“Since we have applied organised crime act, the case has been transferred to an assistant commissioner of police level for further investigations,” the officer said.

Prakash Nilwarkar, assistant commissioner of police (Panvel unit), said, “This gang had also been operating at places such as Osmanabad, Satara, Pune, Baramati among others. They had been committing such crimes is an organised way for a long time and so we have booked them under MCOCA.”

“Many other people from western Maharashtra are also involved with this gang. While we have arrested seven, the names of four other accused have been procured. Our teams have left the city to look for them,” said another police officer from Kharghar police station. The mangled SUV after a dumper hit it at Belapur on Saturday.