Cops probing mysterious kidnapping of Std XII student

Nagpur: Probing the mysterious kidnapping and attempted extortion from a Standard XII student, Pachpaoli cops have procured footage of two abductors and Mayur Devkar (17) from a closed circuit camera. The videos show the accused taking Mayur, seated between them, on his bike through various parts of the city on Tuesday, before Devkar escaped their clutches.
Cops claimed a third accused could be involved, who was making calls from Devkar’s cell phone to demand Rs1.20 lakh ransom. Cops are procuring the call data records of Devkar’s number to trace the phone’s location over the day.

Mayur, a resident of Old Kamptee Railway Quarters, had received a WhatsApp message from an unknown person, claiming to be Kajal Bawne, around eight days back. Devkar had started chatting with her on a regular basis. On Tuesday, Kajal told Devkar to meet her in front of Hanuman Temple near Seva Sadan T-point at 11.30pm, when he was at his friend Mohsin’s place at Lashkari Bagh.

Mayur, who is currently appearing for his board exam, took Mohsin along with him. Mayur dropped Mohsin off at Joggers Street, and left the spot. When Mayur reached Hanuman Temple, two unknown persons approached him and identified themselves as Kajal’s brothers. Mayur sat between them on his bike. One of the accused drover the bike to Gondwana Palace, where the trio halted for a while before heading towards Telangkhedi.

Here, one of the accused, the pillion rider, and Mayur got down from the bike. Another accused snatched Mayur’s cell phone away, and moved some distance away. This is when he appears to have made the first ransom call to Mayur’s father Ashok, a labourer, at around 1.30pm. Mayur told cops that when this accused returned to pick them up, he did not have the cell phone. Cops said Ashok received a total of eight calls from the accused from Mayur’s mobile.

“The abductors took Mayur down streets where hardly any CCTV cameras have been installed. Mayur narrated the entire sequence of events, and accordingly we searched for CCTVs. Luckily, we got footage from one CCTV,” informed a cop.

When Mayur and the abductors were at Seminary Hills, they told Mayur that ‘his father had done wrong with them’, and threatened him with dire consequences. When the duo took him close to the police headquarters, Mayur escaped on his bike. He then called Ashok and reached home on Tuesday evening.

The abductors again called up Ashok on Wednesday at 5.50pm, and told him to reach the railway station with the ransom amount at 7.30pm. The father-son then lodged a complaint with the police. Cops have checked Kajal’s Facebook account, and found that all posts had been deleted.