The Nashik police on Saturday arrested three policemen and a civilian for allegedly kidnapping a Nashik-based businessman and extorting money from him.
According to the Nashik Road police, Mr Praful Balai, an Osmanabad native who has been running a hotel in Nashik for the last four years, had lodged a complaint with them last month, alleging that he had been kidnapped and extorted by police inspector Maula Sayyed, businessman Subhash Kawre and constables Chandrakant Patil and Devidas Phad.
“Mr Balai alleged that Kawre owed him Rs 80,000. Mr Balai had asked Kawre for the money some days ago, but instead of paying him back, Kawre approached the three policemen and asked them for help. They then kidnapped Mr Balai from his residence on April 22 and kept him confined to a house on the Nashik Road for a day. They threatened to falsely implicate him in several unsolved cases and send him to jail for three to four years. Mr Balai was then forced to cough up Rs 5,20,000, which the accused pocketed before he was released the next day,” said an officer with the Nashik Road police station.
After his release, Mr Balai went to the Nashik Road police station. The police, after conductive extensive inquiries, registered an offence against the four accused on Saturday afternoon. All four accused were subsequently arrested from their residences late on Saturday night.
While Sayyed and Patil are with the Nashik crime branch, Phad was posted with the Nashik rural police. All four accused have been booked under sections 341, 342, 323, 363, 364 (A), 365, 384, 386. 392, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
“We are checking the past records of all the accused. They have been remanded to police custody till Wednesday. We are now in the process of recovering the sum of Rs 5,20,000 that they allegedly took from Mr Balai,” the officer added.