Police rescue kidnapped Worli man from Lonavala

MUMBAI: The Worli police have rescued a 28-year-old man from a Lonavala bungalow and arrested four people for allegedly kidnapping him in order to extort a ransom from his brother. A probe revealed that one of the arrested accused had a monetary dispute with the victim and in order to extort money he and another accused had planned and executed the kidnapping.

Those arrested have been identified as Almas Zohardar, 38, Arjun Dalvi, 42, Mansukh Someshwar, 58, and Rubal Johdin, 23.

The police said the complainant, Mohammed Azam Shaikh, 28, from Worli, did not return home on December 9, following which his brother lodged a missing person complaint with the Worli police. Shaikh’s phone was found switched off.

On December 10, Shaikh’s brother received a phone call from him informing him that he was in Lonavala and asked him to deposit Rs7lakh in his bank account. Shaikh’s brother told the police about this and also told them that his brother had never before been to Lonavala and had never required such a large amount on an urgent basis.

Taking serious note of the suspicious circumstances, the police immediately swung into action and a team of inspector Jayandra Sawant, sub-inspector Santosh Kanse, Sagar Kalekar, Rohit Narvekar and the staff under the guidance of superiors launched a manhunt for the victim and started analysing his phone call details.

Technical analysis of the victim’s mobile phone led police to a bungalow in Lonavala. “On December 10, a joint team of Worli police and local police raided the bungalow and rescued Shaikh. Four accused were arrested,” said senior inspector Vinay Kulkarni of the Worli police station.

“Shaikh was first driven to Kamothhe, from there he was taken to Lonavala in a car. Shaikh was beaten up and was made to call his brother asking him to deposit money in his account or else he would be killed,” said sub-inspector Kanse.