Woman circulates fake kidnapping message, police still clueless about motive
A woman in her 40s from Ulhasnagar circulated a fake message on a social networking site about kidnapping of a man at gunpoint. The Hill Line police find it fake after scrutinizing more than 10 CCTV footages. The police book the woman for circulating fake messages.
The police said, on Wednesday evening between 8 pm to 9 pm, a message was circulated on a WhatsApp group by Komal Sawant alias Punjabi. She allegedly claimed that she noticed the incident and circulated it.
"According to her, the incident took place in front of Axis Bank in Ulhasnagar between 8 pm to 8:30 pm. A man was threatened with a revolver and kidnapped in a van. She noticed the complete incident, but couldn't react as the kidnapper had a revolver and she was noticing it from the ATM kiosk," said a police officer on condition of anonymity.
After the message went viral, Prashant Mohite, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ulhasnagar, along with Mohan Khandare, senior police inspector, Hill Line police station and Mahesh Tarde, senior officer of the Ulhasnagar crime branch unit along with their staff started the investigation. "The team started scrutinizing the CCTV footages of the complete vicinity. As per the woman's statement the police till late 12 am checked 10 to 15 CCTV footages from the vicinity to get some clue about the kidnappers, but returned empty
The woman claimed that she noticed the complete incident, but couldn't react as the kidnapper had a revolver and she was noticing it from the ATM kiosk
handed. At 1 am, we even contacted the bank manager and checked the bank and ATM kiosk footage, but couldn't find the woman. After investigating for almost four hours, we were clueless about the kidnappers or the victim. Also, till morning the kidnappers' family also didn't approach the family," added the officer.
The police got clear about the story being faked, when they couldn't find the woman at the location she said to be standing.
Khandare said they are still not aware as to why the woman circulated such a message.
The Hill Line police have booked the woman under section 182 (False information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) of the Indian Penal Code.