The strange case of COEP student’s kidnapping: When a thriller lover staged his own abduction

According to police records, on the night of July 7, 2012, two fishermen discovered the student lying on the banks of Vashi Creek and they alerted the local police. After regaining consciousness, the electronics and telecommunication student reported to the Vashi police that he had been kidnapped by several people. He said he had taken a shared autorickshaw from the Swargate bus stand in Pune to his hostel. The student said he had travelled to Pune from Latur by bus on the morning of July 7 to pay his final year course fees and resume classes at CoEP.

The case was subsequently transferred to the Deccan police station in Pune for further investigation. Meanwhile, a crime branch team initiated a parallel inquiry into the incident.

The police said the student came from a family of a Latur-based businessman. He told the police that unidentified people with whom he was going towards his hostel in the shared rickshaw allegedly drugged him by putting a handkerchief in his mouth. He said he found himself in a car when he woke up. He claimed that the suspects allegedly robbed him of cash worth Rs 60,000, a cell phone and a watch at knifepoint before throwing him down from the bridge at Vashi.

During the investigation, the police took the student to the “crime scene” to understand how he was kidnapped and robbed. Based on the description given by him, the police even prepared sketches of three people, including an “autorickshaw driver, the car driver and of the person who allegedly threatened him with a knife for robbing his valuables”. The police even appealed to the citizens to come forward if they had any information about the suspects.

However, the investigation team found missing links in his statement and crime narration. The police said the student had told his family that he had secured a grade point average of about 8 in the fifth and sixth semesters. But the college officials told the police that he had not even attended classes. It was learnt that he was spending several hours at a library on the FC road reading books and in internet cafes. The police learned that he loved reading crime stories and aspired to be a writer.

The police then called him along with his parents and asked him why he lied to the family. He then reportedly confessed that he was not kidnapped, but had tried to die by suicide. On the morning of July 7, he took a bus to Mumbai, purchased Agatha Christie novels, and rented a room at a lodge in Vashi.

Later, he went to the creek, tossed his bag aside, and jumped in. He also threw his valuables, which he claimed had been stolen, into the water. The police reported that he attempted suicide but later swam to shore and was rescued by a fisherman.

According to the police, the student had a solid academic record. He appeared on the merit list for the secondary and higher secondary exams and performed well in his first year of engineering. However, his grades in later semesters indicated that he had lost interest in the subject, and the police said he might have attempted suicide out of frustration.