PANJIM: A 33-year-old businessman who was kidnapped in North Goa District on Wednesday afternoon for a ransom of Rs one crore was rescued on Thursday morning from an abandoned building.
Goa Police have arrested five persons, including the rescued victim’s employee of two months, Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena said.
Navin Patel, owning a plywood business at Colvale was picked up from his shop and taken to an abandoned building at Goa Velha where three others kept a watch on him till the ransom amount was paid to the kidnapping gang.
“Two persons disguising themselves as customers entered Patel’s shop. They asked him to wait claiming their carpenter was en route to the shop to which Patel hesitated. The accused carrying arms and knife-like object threatened him and later took him in a car,” Meena said, addressing the media at PHQ on Thursday evening.
The victim was tied and it was ensured that he does not identify the location where he was held hostage. DGP said that the accused used a stolen mobile phone to call Patel’s wife demanding Rs 1 crore for his release.
Soon after a police complaint, the department formed teams comprising of North Goa SP, two DySPs, four PIs and subordinate staff to trace the whereabouts of the victim.
“The mobile phone was tracked down to the abandoned building from where Patel was rescued and two accused arrested,” Meena said.
Birendra Kumar and Nishant Mohan, who already have been jailed in 2020 in a vehicle theft case, hatched the kidnapping plan police said. “They were together in judicial custody in a vehicle theft case,” the top cop said adding that Mohan was employed at Patel’s shop around two months back. Reportedly, his verification was not carried out by the employer.
While Kumar, aged 26 years is a native of Bihar, Mohan, aged 22 years, hails from Mangalore and resides at St Cruz. On their interrogation, police zeroed in on Manjunath Baiganoor (28), Sujit Kesarkar (25) and Subash Bhonsle (51). All accused have been arrested under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Meena said that a head constable posted at Old Goa Police Station, Santosh Jadhav, has been suspended for failing to register a FIR in a mobile theft case. The same mobile phone was used for committing the crime.
“Clear instructions are given to the police stations to register any case of robbery, theft, house break in, immediately,” he said.
The car used for committing the crime is also being verified. The DGP, announcing a reward to the police team for detecting the case within 24 hours, said further investigation in the matter is underway.
