10 April,2009 08:09 AM IST | | Vinod Kumar Menon
Fooled: Arun Bharadia has not yet been released.
March 16: Bhadresh Shah from South Mumbai meets marble trader Arun Bharadia of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. Shah tells Bharadia of a Rs 4-crore business deal in Bangkok.
March 24: Bharadia leaves home for Mumbai. Shah arranges for hotel accommodation.
March 25: Bharadia takes a Mumbai-Bangkok flight.
March 26: Bharadia's family gets a call from him. But it's not Bharadia on the line! A stranger speaks to Bharadia's family and tells them he has been abducted and demands a ransom of Rs 5 crore.
They force the hapless Bharadia to speak to his family
March 26: Frantic and terrifiedu00a0 family files an FIR with the Rajasthan police and alerts Interpol.
April 10: The Interpol is unable to crack the case.
Bharadia still remains in the clutches of his abductors.u00a0
Businessman tricked by Bangkok deal
"The victim's family has complained that a reputed hotelier from Udaipur introduced Bharadia to Bhadresh Shah (50), a South Mumbai resident, on March 16. Bhadresh told Arun that a builder based in Bangkok required 70 containers of flooring marbles, and asked him to email photographs of the marble with quotations to the builder," said Singh.
A few days later, Bhadresh called Arun to say the builder had called them to Bangkok to sign the contract.
On March 24, Bharadia reportedly boarded a Kingfisher flight from Udaipur to Mumbai, where Shah arranged for his stay at a hotel near the airport. "The next day, both boarded the 10.30 am Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.
All the travel arrangements were made by Shah," said Singh.
After Bharadia reached Bangkok, the abductors used his mobile phone to make a call to his family and demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crore for his release.
A senior diplomat from the Indian Embassy in Bangkok confirmed that they were assisting law-enforcing agencies to get Bharadia released.
The Rajasthan police are also seeking assistance from their counterparts in the Mumbai crime branch according to sources. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deven Bharati, however, refused to divulge any details.
Gulab Singh, senior inspector of police, Chanderiya police station, Chittorgarh, said a case of abduction has been registered under Section 364 (1) of the IPC.
