Sugar trader's son held for ransom, saved

Pune: "It is nothing less than a new lease of life for me," said sugar wholesaler Purshottam Rathi after police rescued his 28-year-old son Ankit from the clutches of seven kidnappers on Tuesday.
Ankit was on his way home to Salisbury Park on his motorcycle after closing his office in Hadapsar when five men travelling by a car allegedly intercepted and kidnapped him near Command Hospital around 8.45pm on Monday.
Recounting the ordeal, Ankit told TOI that the kidnappers had covered his face with a cloth and slapped him repeatedly to make him sit in their car. "They also threatened me with dire consequences if I resisted. Thereafter, they snatched my cellphone and made a call to my father around 9.30pm, demanding a ransom of Rs 3 crore," he said.
"On receiving the call, my father was so panicked that he could not react to the situation. He took some time to tell the kidnappers that it was beyond his capacity to pay the amount at such a short notice. He, however, promised to pay them Rs 10 lakh which he had at the moment," Ankit said, adding that the kidnappers allowed him to talk to his father only once.
Visibly-emotional Rathi said, "Ankit's wife was inconsolable after he was kidnapped. The kidnappers made a total of 11 calls in the name of D-gang for the ransom. It became difficult for us to console her, but we did not lose hope and gave informed the crime branch about the incident. I am indebted to the policemen who acted immediately and cracked the case within 10 hours after lodging the complaint."
Assistant commissioner of police Suresh Bhosale said the suspects, identified as Anil Dahire (19), Rohit Sathe (19), Nikhil Kamble (22), Nitin Bendre (21) and Prakash Diwakar (20) from Market Yard and Sahakarnagar, were arrested around 8am on Tuesday. "The plan to kidnap Ankit was hatched by Narayan Vallabh Vaishnav (28), an accountant of Rathi, who has been arrested too. However, one of his accomplices, identified as Arjun Sopan, is still at large," he said.
After Rathi approached us with the complaint, we asked him to agree to their demands and ask them the meeting point. "To confuse police, the kidnappers kept changing their location. We had to lay traps at many spots, including Khadi Machine Chowk in Kondhwa, Saswad, Shindewadi, Wagholi, Kesnand Phata, Theur, Solapur Road, Urali Kanchan," Bhosale said.
Finally, our teams from the anti-extortion cell led by senior inspector Anil Patil and crime branch (Unit V) and inspector M M Mujawar spotted Ankit and the kidnappers in a car parked in a suspicious manner in Yavat. "We arrested the suspects and rescued Ankit immediately," he added.
Sathe and Bendre have cases of body offence registered with the Dattawadi police station. The suspects, barring Vaishnav, are into small time jobs, police said.
DCP P R Patil said investigations have revealed that since Vaishnav worked in Rathi's office for two years, he was well aware of the daily transactions made by them. "Vaishnav and his accomplices planned the kidnapping to make easy money. It took them eight days to come up with the plan, for which they stole a car belonging to one Shashikant Keshav Bhide.
Patil said during interrogation, Vaishnav also revealed that he had taken the help of some of the suspects earlier too to rob Ankit. "They robbed Ankit of Rs 6.5 lakh cash in Hadapsar on May 5, 2016," he said. However, the case remained undetected since then.
Ankit's uncle Rajendra Gugale said, "We were confused whether to approach police or not. We consulted retired CID chief Ashok Dhiware and registered a complaint after he told us to have faith in the police force. We thank police for detecting the case within 10 hours after giving them information of the incident."
A police team comprising assistant inspectors Mahadev Waghmode, Vitthal Shelar and Yuvraj Nandre and policemen Amjad Pathan, Nilesh Desai, Sachin Ahiwale and others will be rewarded for detecting the case. "We have handed over the suspects to the Wanowrie police for taking further action," DCP Patil said.
Unfazed by the incident, Ankit on Tuesday offered a bouquet to the police team for conducting a massive operation for rescuing him unhurt.