One held in Mumbai for abducting flower seller, hunt on for four others

The police said that around 6 pm on December 1, two persons identified as Bapu Prahlad Chavan and Vilas Prahlad Chavan approached Kale at his shop and abducted him by falsely pretending that there was a large order of flowers.

A police officer said, “The accused asked Kale to sit in their vehicle and took him to Sangli and locked him in a room.”

Later, on December 8, the kidnappers called his wife, Sunita, and demanded Rs 7 lakh as ransom. They even threatened to kill him if she fails to give them the money, said the police.

The woman, who did not have that much money, approached the police and lodged a complaint, where a case was registered under relevant sections of kidnapping, extortion and wrongful confinement.

The police officials then scrutinised the CCTV footage of the spot from where he was picked up and worked on the call data record of the number from which the ransom call was made.

During the course of investigation, the police came to know that the group of kidnappers, along with Kale, were shifting locations between Sangli and Karnataka.

“When they came to know that we have managed to trace them to an address where Kale is confined, the group left Kale in the room and escaped,” said police sub-inspector Naushad Tamboli. He added, “We subsequently received information that the accused are at the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, so we laid a trap there and a person named Santosh Kale was arrested.”

The police further added that the flower seller was then traced inside a room in Pandozari village in Sangli and was rescued. The arrested accused was produced in the court and remanded in police custody till January 5.

The officers, who are currently trying to trace Bapu Prahlad Chavan, his brother Vilas, sister Mayuri and an unidentified accused said Chavan works as a contractor and is in charge of deputing labourers to sugarcane companies.

“The working culture there is that the contractor pays the labourers in advance and accordingly a few months ago, Ramesh Bapu Kale had taken around Rs 7 lakh from Chavan for works in the sugarcane farm. He had also promised to provide labourers to him but came to Mumbai,” said a police officer.

When he did not return, the accused allegedly kidnapped him to recover the money. The police further added that Chavan is a history sheeter and has committed similar crimes in the past. “There is a case registered against Chavan at Vita police station in Sangli where he is accused of abducting a sugarcane farmer due to some dispute over money and demanding ransom,” said an officer.

Chavan has also murdered a man in Solapur after his family could not pay the money they had borrowed from him.