Friends kidnap youth, mastermind still at large

An Aspiring scriptwriter and student, Raju Nishad, was allegedly kidnapped and robbed of his mobile phone, laptop, registeredfilm scripts and songs by four of his friends at Kasara Ghat onWednesday. They lured him to Kasara Ghat on the pretext of showing his works to a famous television director and help himland a plum project. However, the accused abandoned the scriptwriter and fled with his valuables.

The incident
Nishad, an aspiring scriptwriter, was a student of a media institute at SV Road in Andheri where he befriended Chirag Joshi, the mastermind. According to cops, on Tuesday, Joshi called Nishad and said that he had set up a meeting with a famous TV director at Igatpuri. On Wednesday they met near Dadar station where Joshi had brought a car and was accompanied by another accused Nitin Patel, who introduced himself as an assistant producer.

After reaching Kasara, Joshi told Nishad that he needed all his work to show to the director. He took Nishad's laptop and hard copies of 24 songs that were registered in his name.

The next day, the accused took Nishad for sight-seeing and then abandoned him on a road near Kasara Ghat and fled. Nishad sought the help of local villagers who lent him some money to reach home. A few days later the accused called Nishad's brother from the stolen mobile phone and demanded Rs 7 lakh. Nishad's family thought of paying them only Rs 2 lakh and also contacted the Tardeo police.

On Friday night at 11 pm when 23-year-old Aniket Kapure came to collect the money, the cops caught him red-handed. A police officer said, "All the accused have been charged under Sections 364, 387, 406 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The hunt is on for the remaining accused and we are investigating their motive behind the offence."

The three other accused -- u00a0Joshi, Nitin Patel and an unknown person are still at large. u00a0