“Further investigation is underway to unravel the larger racket behind this incident,” said DCP Bachchan  Singh. (Representational Photo)

Four persons including a police officer have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and extorting money from a doctor in Hadapsar.

According to a press release issued by Deputy Commissioner of Police Bachchan Singh on Wednesday, the incident took place on May 31.

The four accused, Pradeep Dnyandev Fasage (37), Kailas Bhanudas Avchite, Sameer Jagannath Thorat, who is a police constable attached to the Pune City Police headquarters, and a woman, Arti Prabhakar Chavan (29), went to a hospital in Hadapsar on May 31, police said.

Claiming to be a patient, the woman went to see the doctor, but as he was examining her, she suddenly started screaming loudly, police said.

The other three accused, who were waiting outside the hospital, rushed inside, police said.

Claiming to be police personnel, the three men kidnapped the doctor and took him in a car, first to Saswad Road and then to an office in Hadapsar, where they confined him, police said.

The accused assaulted the doctor and threatened to lodge a police complaint against him unless he paid them Rs 10 lakh, police said. Two accused, Fasage and Avchite, claimed to be journalists and threatened to defame the doctor and his hospital, police said. After negotiations, the accused agreed to settle the issue for Rs 7 lakh, police said.

The doctor reached out to his family, friends and associate doctors and managed to arrange Rs 5.89 lakh, police said. After receiving the money, the accused released the doctor, police said.

According to police, the doctor was in a state of shock and did not file a complaint immediately after being released. He discussed the incident with a friend in the police department, then lodged the FIR in this case at the Hadapsar police station.

After a search, the accused were arrested and booked under sections 364 (a) (kidnapping for ransom), 384 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 388 (extortion by threat of accusation of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (1) (criminal intimidation), 143 (member of an unlawful assembly) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

“Further investigation is underway to unravel the larger racket behind this incident,” said DCP Singh.