5 including ex-employee arrested in 24 hours
Panaji: Achieving a breakthrough within 24 hours of a kidnapping case, the Goa police have managed to rescue a businessman unharmed, who was abducted for a ransom of Rs 1 crore.
The kidnapping was reportedly plotted with the help of the businessman’s former employee. Police have arrested five accused including the former employee in connection with the crime.
The businessman has been identified by the police as Navin Patel (33) from Mapusa, who has his plywood business at Thivim.
Police said the businessman was rescued from an abandoned house in Agacaim. The accused include the former employee Nishant Mogan (22), originally from Mangaluru and residing at St Cruz, main accused Birendar Kumar (26), originally from Bihar, Manjunath Baiganoor (28), originally from Karwar, Sujit Kesarkar (25) and Subhash Bhonsle (51), both originally from Kolhapur and residing at St Cruz.
Police have attached a car, mobile phones and a knife that were reportedly used in the offence. According to police, the incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when Patel was kidnapped from his Thivim shop at knifepoint. The same night, ransom calls were made to his family members by the accused using a stolen SIM card.
Following this, police were contacted by the businessman’s family and cops immediately swung into action, achieving breakthrough in the wee hours of Thursday.
Director General of Police (DGP) Mukesh Kumar Meena has complimented the police teams for rescuing the businessman unharmed and arresting the accused persons. Meena has also declared a reward for the team.
“Different teams were formed to solve the case. The police personnel have done an excellent job and achieved breakthrough within 24 hours,” said the DGP during a press briefing at the police headquarters in the city on Thursday evening. Also present were Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Parmaditya, Superintendent of Police (SP), North, Shobhit Saksena and public relation officer SP Mahesh Gaonkar.
The DGP said two of the accused, Birendar Kumar and Nishant Mogan, were previously arrested in connection with a case of vehicle theft, which was registered at the Agacaim police station.
The DGP further said that one head constable attached to the Old Goa police station has been suspended. The head constable had reportedly failed to take action on a complaint filed by a person whose SIM card was used by the accused to make the ransom calls to the family members of Patel. This fact came to light during police investigation into the kidnapping case, police said.
The accused had forcefully taken the SIM card of a labourer from an area, which comes under the jurisdiction of Old Goa police station. The labourer had approached the police, complaining about the SIM card. However, the police reportedly did not act on his complaint. “Any theft cases that are reported to the police have to be registered and instructions have already been issued to the concerned police stations,” said the DGP.