PANAJI
An attempt to extract Rs 1 crore in ransom from a plywood dealer's wife was foiled by the North Goa district police on Thursday, a day after the Thivim-based businessman was kidnapped by five armed persons and dumped in an abandoned building in Agassaim.
According to Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena, five persons, including a former employee of the 33-year-old store owner Navin Patel, have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping.
The names of the accused are Birendra Kumar (26) from Bihar, Nihsant Mogan (22) from Mangalore, Manjunath Baiganoor (28) from Candolim, Sujit Kesarkar (25) and Subhash Bhonsle (51) both from Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
Meena said that Bidrendra and Nishant (former employee) visited Patel's store to buy plywood and asked him to stay back at his store on the pretext that they would buy plywood in bulk after their carpenter gives them the go ahead.
"After that, they locked Patel inside his own store after threatening him with weapons, which seemed liked including arms and knives," Meena said.
Patel was then whisked to an abandoned building in Agacaim where he was blindfolded and dumped.
"The accused then stole a phone from Old Goa police station jurisdiction from which they called the victim's wife and demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore," Meena said.
After a complaint was registered at the Colvale police station on Thursday morning, the police identified the phone from which the ransom called was made and mounted technical surveillance which led to the location of Nishant and Birendra, both of whom have been previously arrested in a liquor theft case at the Agassaim police station. Nishant, Meena said, was aware of Patel's background including the identity of his relatives.
After the duo was nabbed, their interrogation led to the release of the victim and the arrest of the other three members of the team.
"In all five persons have been detained and action will be taken as per evidence," Meena said.
The top cop said that the police were still in the process of interrogating the five accused and were also verifying their antecedents.
"Since this information is preliminary, we will verify their antecedents and where they have stayed. We will verify their old antecedents too. Since this information is preliminary, we will also verify when they have come to Goa where they have stayed," Meena said.
