BJYM neta among 6 held for Ytl teen’s abduction

Yavatmal: A Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM) office-bearer and a transgender were among six arrested in connection with kidnapping of a businessman’s teenager son. The police rescued 17-year-old Harsh Ishwar Lachwani unharmed within 12 hours of registering the case late on Monday night.
Police have identified the accused as BJYM leader Shubham Tolwani, Nilesh Unatkar (37), Nitesh Rathod (31), Arvind Sable, Satish Shelotkar, and Suraj Shukla (a transgender).
According to LCB chief Pradeep Siraskar, all the six were produced before a court and remanded to police custody for six days.
Sources said Tolwani, who lost considerable amount in betting, masterminded the plan to extort money from Harsh’s father, who runs a cycle store.
Tolwani hatched a plan to kidnap Harsh and demand Rs50 lakh and contacted Nilesh Unatkar, who clubbed in Arvind and Nitesh. As planned, Nilesh, Arvind and Nitesh intercepted Harsh when he was returning from tuition class on Monday at 10am. They threatened Harsh with a knife and dragged him on one of their bikes leaving the victim’s scooter by the roadside.
The accused took Harsh to Ichora jungle, about 20km from the city, stripped and thrashed him. They made a video call to the teen’s father asking him to pay the money in four hours.
Lachwani rushed to Awadhootwadi police station and lodged a complaint. Interestingly, Tolwani too accompanied Lachwani to the police station. SP Rajkumar ordered ‘nakabandi’ and set up 16 squads to trace the teen.
As the manhunt was on, DB squad leader Sandeep Mupade received a tip off and detained Suraj Shukla, security guard at Tolwani’s bungalow. During interrogation, Shukla spilled the beans and led the cops to the hideout of the accused. On interrogation, Tolwani confessed to the crime.
A case under sections 364 (A) and 34 of IPC and under sections 8 and 12 of POCSO Act has been registered. Police inspector of Awadhootwadi police station AM Wagatkar is investigating the case further.