Mumbai: A Jogeshwari-based businessman, who had been kidnapped three days ago, was rescued by the police on Friday. Six people were arrested in connection with the case, police said.
They said Bhavin Shah, a resident of Meghwadi, runs a chemical tanker business. On Tuesday morning, Mr. Shah visited the Regional Transport Office in Andheri, and had told his wife, Hetal, that he would be home by 3 p.m. When he didn’t and all attempts to contact him failed, Mrs. Shah registered a Missing Persons Complaint with Amboli police station on Tuesday night.
DCP (Zone IX) Paramjit Singh Dahiya said, “At 2:38 pm on Wednesday, Mrs. Shah received a call from her husband’s cell phone, but someone else was on the line. The man, speaking in Marathi, told her to check WhatsApp messages and hung up. When she did, she found a video clip sent from Mr. Shah’s cell phone, in which he says he has been kidnapped, and his kidnappers want ₹82 lakh as ransom. Mrs. Shah informed us, and we initiated our investigations.”
Cops begin hunt
Over the next three days, Mrs. Shah received five videos on WhatsApp and several voice messages, in which the ransom amount was brought down to ₹50 lakh. She kept pleading with the kidnappers, saying most of their bank accounts were in Mr. Shah’s name, and that she is able to arrange only for ₹10 lakh.
Meanwhile, police went through Mr. Shah’s Call Data Record (CDR) to see who he had been in touch with just before being kidnapped, and began verifying backgrounds of people whose numbers figured in the CDR. One of them, Mohamed Shanu, caught their eye due to his history with Mr Shah: Mr. Shanu used to be Mr. Shah’s elder brother’s business associate, but fell out with him recently. The police, through their informants, sought more information about him, and found his movements suspicious.
Meanwhile, the accused also withdrew close to ₹80,000 from various ATMs using Mr. Shah’s debit card. The ATM locations corresponded with Mr. Shanu’s, and with those of several others in his frequently dialled numbers, further deepening suspicion against him.
The handoff
On Friday, the kidnappers told Mrs. Shah to board a train from Andheri to Nallasopara with the ransom. Mr. Dahiya said, “From 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., the kidnappers made Mrs. Shah change trains several times to make sure she wasn’t being followed by the police. Finally, they told her to get off at Vasai Road, and one of them approached her to take the ransom.”
At Vasai Road railway station, a police team led by API Daya Nayak, which had managed to follow Mrs. Shah despite the kidnappers’ efforts, nabbed the accused. He led them to Nallasopara, where Mr. Shah was being held captive.
An officer who was part of the investigation team, added, “The accused was on the same train as Mrs. Shah and was watching her while giving instructions. True to our hunch, Mr. Shanu and four others were holding Mr. Shah captive. The plan was to kill Mr. Shah after getting the ransom, as he knew Mr. Shanu and would have identified him.”
The officer added that the accused would use Mr. Shah’s phone to contact his wife, and would go to distant locations like Dahanu and the Mumbai- Ahmedabad highway before using it, to prevent police from tracking Mr. Shah’s actual location.
Mr. Dahiya added, “We recovered one country-made pistol, three live rounds, an car used for the abduction and ₹22,000 of the money the accused withdrew using Mr. Shah’s debit card. One of the accused had contacted Mr. Shah, posing as a dry cleaner in need of some chemicals, and asked him to meet near Ram Mandir, where they kidnapped him.”