Thane: The 12-year-old son of an industrialist in Maharashtra who was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 2 crore was successfully rescued from neighbouring Gujarat and reunited with his parents, police said on Sunday. More than 300 policemen were enlisted to look for the child. The police teams worked on various inputs, he said.
The accused have been identified as Fardshah Ferozshah Rafai (26), a resident of Palghar and a native of Rajkot in Gujarat; Princekumar Ramangina Singh (24), a native of Bhavnagar in Gujarat; Shaheen Shabam Mehtar (27); Farheen Princekumar Singh (20), a sister of the main accused Fardshah; and Nazia Fardshah Rafai (25), a wife of the main accused.
On the morning of November 9, the accused kidnapped the boy, who was on his way to tuition classes. The boy's father later received a call on his mobile phone and was informed that he would have to pay a ransom of Rs 1 crore for his son's safe return, additional commissioner of police Dattatreya Shinde said.
Sachin Gunjal, deputy commissioner of police, said on Sunday, November 13, during the press conference while speaking to the media, "Ranjit Somendra Jha (45) owns a company in Dombivli MIDC, and he lives in a MIDC residential area with his wife and three children. A 12-year-old boy student of Model English School in Class VII regularly used to go for tuition and come home alone at around 10 a.m., but on Wednesday, November 9, he did not come home till late at night. Entrepreneur Ranjit Jha, his wife Kamini, and their two children checked into society and also attended tuition, but he was not found. While searching for a boy, father Ranjit receives a call from an unknown person who says, "We have kidnapped your son" and threatens to pay a ransom of Rs 1 crore within two days or he will kill the boy. Ranjeet immediately went to Manpada Police Station and reported the incident to senior police inspector Shekhar Bagade.
20 investigation teams were formed
On the orders of Thane Police Commissioner Jai Jeet Singh, 20 investigation teams of police from Dombivli and Kalyan, under the guidance of Dattatray Shinde, an additional commissioner of police, Kalyan East Regional Division, all seniors of the Crime Branch, and six separate teams of senior inspectors were formed.
Gunjal added, "On Wednesday, the police team examined the CCTV footage of the route the boy took from home to the tuition class and also traced the number of accused. It was seen that the accused used a Nissan Datsun GO vehicle of the Nissan company for the kidnapping. The accused were using a backroad, jungle route to avoid the vehicle being seen on CCTV, and they also kept changing their vehicle number."
Don't you want to pay the ransom?
"While checking vehicles in the Nashik and Jawhar areas on Thursday, November 10, the accused contacted Ranjit and asked, "Don't you want to pay the ransom?" Now pay 1.5 crores in the next three hours or else you will have to pay a huge price' he warned.
Later, Senior Inspector Ashok Honmane, while patrolling in Jawar, came across a suspected vehicle. He instructed the squad ahead to intercept the vehicle. The accused tried to run his vehicle past the patrol team.
The accused abandoned the vehicle
Later, the accused abandoned the vehicle in the forest and fled with the kidnapped boy.The police team took the villagers' support and searched the forest for the accused, and an offer of a reward of Rs 50,000 was made to those who gave information about the accused.
"The boy has been handed over to his family." All the accused were arrested, and on Saturday they were presented in the Kalyan Court, which ordered police custody till November 18.
