API Ashwini Bidre kidnapping: Police arrest two from Sangli in connection with kidnapping

Mumbai: A police team from Navi Mumbai has arrested two persons from Sangli in connection with the kidnapping of Assistant Police Inspector Ashwini Jaykumar Bidre. Bidre who was posted with the Protection of Civil Rights unit at Konkan Bhavan at Belapur has been missing from her residence at Roadpali at Kalamboli since April 15,2016.

A missing person complaint was registered on July 14, 2016. On January 31 this year, a case of kidnapping was filed at Kalamboli police station. The police refused to divulge the names of the two detained persons. According to a senior police official, “We have detained two persons from Kupwad in Sangli since we suspect that they were in touch over the phone with the arrested accused Assistant Police Inspector Abhay Shyamsundar Kurundkar. It is not yet known whether Bidre is alive or dead. We are going through the Call Details Records of Kurundkar.”

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Kurundkar, who is attached with the Security Branch of Thane rural police, was arrested on Thursday and remanded in police custody till December 15. Kurundkar and Bidre had met while both were posted in Sangli eight years ago. On Monday, the Navi Mumbai police arrested Rajesh Patil, nephew of former State Finance Minister Eknath Khadse in this case.

Patil and Kurundkar have been arrested for kidnapping or abducting in order to murder (Section 364), criminal intimidation (Section 506(2)), adultery (Section 497) and voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323) of the Indian Penal Code. According to Rajkumar Chaphekar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, “The Call Detail Records (CDR) of Patil, arrested police inspector Kurundkar and Bidre show that they were at the same place on April 15, 2016, the day she was last seen. There were several calls exchanged between Patil and Kurundkar and their location was traced near Vasai creek.”