A 44-year-old man was kidnapped and killed, while his octogenarian mother was kidnapped and captivated for almost a month by a group of people over a property-related altercation.
On April 21, a woman approached the Chembur police claiming that her sister Rohini Vasant Kamble, 80, and her son, Vishal Vasant Kamble, had gone missing on April 5. The police registered a case but did not find any substantial elements in the inquiry as the matter was 15 days late.
With no leads, the police circulated their photos and got a tip-off about two men, based in Wadala and Powai, who could be possibly involved in the kidnapping. On arrest, they confessed their involvement. During interrogation, it came to light that they were assigned to kidnap Vasant from Chembur and take him to a bungalow in Panvel.
After a heated argument regarding a property-related matter, Vasant was killed the same day. A few days later, his body was dumped at an isolated place near Vadodara-Ahmedabad Highway. In the course of the interrogation, more names came up, including that of a woman, a relative of the Kamble family.
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It then came to light that Rohini, who was also allegedly kidnapped by the group, was actually captivated in a house in Aarey Colony. She was rescued unharmed.
The five accused – Munir Pathan, 41, Rohit Admane aka Moosa Parkar, 40, Jyoti Waghmare, 33, Raju Darvesh, 40 – are all residents of Mumbai, while the fifth, Pranav Ramteke, 25, is a resident of Kolhapur, who was called by others to carry out kidnapping. Sources revealed there may be more accused involved.
The police said Waghmare is prima facie the key organiser of crime as she was the one present at the Panvel bungalow interacting with Vishal.
All the accused were presented in Kurla court on Wednesday, which remanded them to police custody for further investigations. Meanwhile, police have added serious criminal offences against the accused under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 328 (Causing hurt by means of poison), 364 (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder), 346 (wrongful confinement in secret), 347 (wrongful confinement to extort property, or constrain to illegal act) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
