19 January,2012 07:16 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
Twelve people allegedly looted the assistant production manager of a television show on the pretext of selling him the services of a call girl.
Crime Branch officers arrested eight members of the gang yesterday.
In the police net: Cops have arrested eight of the 12 members of the
gang who offered to sell Bhaskar Das the services of a woman, and then
abducted him and took away his valuables. Pic/Samiullah Khan
Cops said that the incident took place three days ago, when the victim, 36-year-old Mira Road resident Bhaskar Das, wrapped up work for the day at his Trombay studio, and was riding back home in the office car.
According to cops, Das had asked one of his acquaintancesu00a0-- an absconding accusedu00a0-- to provide him with girls whom he could pay for sex. It was this girl who masterminded the entire robbery.
A few days after he made the request to the girl, he started receiving a slew of phone calls from a man who claimed to be a struggling actor, and was willing to find him women for one-night-stands.
In course of the ride back home, Das received a phone call from the same actor, who offered to sell him the services of a girl for the night, in exchange for a fixed amount.
Convinced, Das agreed to meet the caller near the Oberoi Mall in Goregaon (East). At midnight, Das halted the office car and got off, and the caller approached him, introducing himself as Vijay.
"Das did not suspect anything, and agreed to go and sit with Vijay in the Tavera parked nearby. As Das bent down to enter the car, Vijay shoved him in. Inside the vehicle were seven occupants, including a woman," said API Vijay Kandulgonkar from Unit XII of the Crime Branch.
Assaulted
The occupants of the vehicle then pinned Das down, and extracted his gold chain, ring and mobile phones, as well as his debit card.
Having abducted him, they drove towards the ATM centre in Gokuldham, where the female gang member, accompanied by a male accomplice, stepped out of the car and entered the ATM centre. She tried to withdraw money using Das' debit card, but could not operate the machine. The robbers then drove towards Andheri, abandoned a bruised and battered Das on the highway at Jogeshwari, and sped away.
Das then approached the Vanrai police station in Goregaon (East) and registered a case against the unidentified assailants. Crime Branch officers then arrested eight of the 10 robbers who abducted Das. They are on the hunt for four more members of the gang, two of whom are women.
The arrested accused were handed over to the Vanrai police station for further investigations. Crime Branch officers said that all the gang members were between the ages of 18 and 20 years, and hailed from Santosh Nagar in Goregaon.
