Powai-based chartered accountant Bhushan Arora who was kidnapped on January 17 was safely rescued by the police, and four people involved were arrested, said the police on Wednesday.
Bhushan, 40, left his house for work and didn’t return home, said his wife Megha, who had first approached the police. Megha received a call from her husband’s number demanding a ransom of Rs5 crore on the same day. The unknown callers claimed to be Bhushan’s friends, assured him he was safe with them, and threatened Megha not to contact the police. Two days later, on January 19, she received yet another call from them. This time, they informed her that her husband caused a monetary loss of Rs15 crore and hence, as compensation, they continued to demand Rs5 crore in return for Bhushan’s safety.
Worried, Megha approached the police and immediately 12 teams of police were formed to investigate the case. During the investigation, it appeared that Bhushan had been receiving multiple threats from people after he suffered a loss in the stock market. According to a police official, Bhushan, assuring that he would give handsome returns, invested people’s money in stocks. The people include his friends, family, colleagues, etc. from across Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pune areas. He was facing tremendous financial troubles and also receiving threats from people who lost money due to him.
Bhushan’s case, which was registered as missing, after the ransom call, was turned into a kidnapping case. The phone call Megha received from Bhushan’s phone was tracked to grab the location details and an extensive search operation began in Panvel, Navi Mumbai and Matheran areas – which ended up at a farmhouse in Panvel. Based on the intel, the location was moving in the Kamothe area in Navi Mumbai, and accordingly, a trap was formed near the Sion-Panvel Highway from where two accused were arrested and Bhushan was found with them in a Maruti Suzuki Eeco minivan.
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The accused confessed that they had invested money in Bhushan’s company Divine Power and felt ‘cheated’ by Bhushan and his partners. Behind the kidnapping, there were two more accused, who were later arrested by the police in Navi Mumbai.
They are identified as Amol Mhatre, 41, Niranjan Singh, 32, Vidhichandra Yadav, 31, and Mohammad Sulaiman, 20. All of the four were charged with the offence 364A (kidnapping for ransom) under the Indian Penal Code.
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