The Mumbai Crime Branch arrests nine people and manages to save face by solving the case of abduction of a Ghatkopar youth, thanks to a newborn baby
The Mumbai Crime Branch managed to save face and have solved the case of the abduction of a Ghatkopar youth, after the kidnappers managed to flee with the Rs 2 crore ransom money from right under their noses.
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Interestingly, it is the newborn baby of one of the alleged gang members that led cops to the gang. Investigations have also revealed the gang members have given cops the slip twice in the past in other kidnapping incidents. The main accused was identified as Ajit Apraj (40), a mechanical engineer.
Police have arrested nine people and recovered Rs 90 lakh of the total Rs 2 crore paid in ransom amount to secure the release of the Ghatkopar youth. Pics/Bipin Kokate
His wife, Bharti, an advocate, has also been arrested. Along with the couple, police have arrested Manish Gangurde (27), Deepak Salve (28), Avinash Dethe (25), Vijay Wadle (25), Ganesh Koyande (38), Rakesh Kanojiya (32), and Gautam Gupta (30) all nabbed from Ghatkopar.
The incident occurred on March 11, when the 21-year-old TYBcom student was abducted from outside his house. On April 12, the evasive gang called the youth’s builder family to Sanjay Gandhi National Park to drop off the ransom amount.
There, the gang members managed to flee from right under the nose of the Mumbai Crime Branch, which could do naught but watch (see box). The victim youth was soon set free (‘Kidnappers flee with Rs 2 crore as cops look on’, April 15).
Tracing the accused
Police said the plan was hatched by Apraj, Kanojiya, Gupta and one Suresh, who is currently absconding. The others were later added to the plot. The victim was unable to describe the location where he was confined, since the gang would either make him dizzy with alcohol or ask him to snort glue to obscure his sense of direction.
Call details records later revealed the gang would shuttle between Vani, in Nashik and Murbad, in Thane district. However, the youth remembered overhearing a conversation in which one of the gang members spoke to another about his wife’s impending delivery on April 3.
“Since the beginning of the case, we had this intuition that the accused are based somewhere close to the victim’s house and had been monitoring him before the abduction. With the clue provided by the victim, we scanned the records of all government hospitals, for babies born on April 3.
We examined the family of every child born in all the hospitals in Ghatkopar on that day. Eventually we zeroed in on the father of a child delivered at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Mahanagar Palika Hospital in Vikhroli. He behaved in a suspicious manner when we spoke to him,” a Crime Branch officer said, on condition of anonymity.
This man was Gangurde, who was then picked up for interrogations and proved to be the prime catch. He spilled the beans on the others and all of them were arrested. Elaborating on the role of Bharti, the officer added, “Apraj had given Rs 50 lakh to his wife. She had kept the cash in her bank locker.
The money has been recovered and we have also arrested her since, she is also a part of the conspiracy.” This amount is suspected to be from the other kidnappings the gang was involved in. Police have also recovered Rs 90 lakh of the Rs 2 crore the gang took as ransom to release the Ghatkopar youth. All the accused were produced before the metropolitan magistrate court and remanded in police custody till May 5.
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