30 March,2017 08:30 AM IST | | Vijay Kumar Yadav
Nutan Mange suspected that her husband Lalit, owner of several private logistics firms, was having an affair with his company's CEO, and she wanted proof. But, she was left to regret her act
The arrested detective is refusing to divulge where he's hidden the gold jewellery he stole from the woman. Pic/Thinkstock
Nutan Mange suspected that her husband Lalit, owner of several private logistics firms, was having an affair with his company's CEO, and she wanted proof. So she employed the services of Rajesh Tulsidas Nakhua, a private detective who ran an unlicensed, but creatively named detective firm, Snoop: Services and Networks for Observation, Operations and Probe. That should have been strike one.
However, it was only after she was defrauded and extorted of ornaments and cash worth nearly Rs 3.04 crore that she reported the matter to the Powai police station, which transferred the case to Crime Branch unit 6. However, while Nakhua, a Ghatkopar resident, was arrested on Wednesday after the court rejected his anticipatory bail plea on March 24, his two accomplices - Mira Chandan and Deepak Bhanushali - managed to secure bail in the matter. He has been charged under sections 420, 385, 465, 468 and 120B of the IPC and has been sent to police custody, a crime branch officer said.
Representational pic
According to the police, "In July last year, the accused first convinced Nutan that her husband was having an affair and then told her that he would be handing over jewellery worth Rs 3 crore to the other woman. So he asked her to hand it over to him instead for safe-keeping.
However, when she asked for it to be returned, he pointed a gun at her and threatened to harm her family members. Nakhua also allegedly threatened to kidnap the complainant's minor daughter."
But it didn't end there. "Nakhua then threatened to defame her by telling her family that she was in an illicit relationship with him (Nakhua) and demanded R50 lakh to keep his mouth shut," said an officer, requesting anonymity.
In another smart move, later confirmed by handwriting experts, Nakhua allegedly forged a receipt that the ornaments had been returned safe and sound to Nutan. Mange has also stated, "In the name of collecting evidence, Nakhua and his associates Mira and Deepak took R4 lakh from me in October last year."
Meanwhile, police sources said that Nakhua is refusing to divulge where the ornaments have been hidden and they are still interrogating him about it.
