Five arrested for kidnapping and killing Vashi man

Mumbai crime branch officials on Tuesday arrested five people for alleg edly kidnapping a 52-year-old man from Vashi and murdering him at Ratnagiri four months ago.

The accused, Sachin Kadam 44, Anil Naik, 41, Jaideep Khatri, 22, all Kopar Khairane residents, Mahendra Mistry, 36 a Chiplun resident , and Zinda Mullah, 40, a Vashi resident have been handed over to the Vashi police.

The accused kidnapped San jay Gaikward, a resident of Vashi village on June 9 and strangled him to death at Ratna giri the next morning, said the police. They then dumped his body in a gorge and fled. On June 10, locals spotted the body and informed the police. After the initial investigations, the Ratnagiri police registered an accidental death case.

“Mullah stayed as a tenant in Gaikward’s house. On June 9, he took Gaikward to Juinagar where he met the other accused and then they went to Ratna giri,” said inspector Suraj Padv from Vashi police station.

Padvi said, “Mullah, a rea estate agent, had given Rs40 lakh to Gaikward to develop the latter’s residential building However, after taking the money, Gaikward didn’t let him start the work. He also refused to return the money to Mullah So, Mullah planned to kill him.”

The accused were produced were before the judicial court on Tuesday afternoon and have been remanded in police cus