15 years on, 4 convicted in kidnap case

After 15 years, the Sewree fast track court has convicted four people in a kidnap case.

After 15 years, the Sewree fast track court has convicted four people in a kidnap case. In 1993, jeweller Hasmukhlal Zagda 47 was abducted by associates of his distant relative, Bhartiben Zagda. They wanted to extract Rs 22 lakh from the victim. Ad-hoc assistant sessions judge P M Chouhan sentenced the accused8212;Mansoor Masudi and Jagannath Surv8212; to five years of rigorous imprisonment on charges of extortion and wrongful confinement on Tuesday.

Zagda, who ran a family business dealing with gold, was first threatened by unknown persons on February 13, 1993. Six people had landed up at his factory in Borivali and told his brother, Bharat, that Zagda would be killed if he didn8217;t return Rs 22 lakh he owed to one Bharatiben. In his deposition before the court, Zagda claimed that he did not know any Bharatiben but later learnt from his mother that she was his maternal uncle8217;s sister-in-law and had misappropriated some money.

According to Zagda8217;s deposition, on February 17 when he was going to one of his factories, Mansoor Masudi and Krishna Shetty both accused in the case dragged him to a waiting rickshaw at gunpoint. Zagda was then taken to a hut near a construction site in Kandivli. The others accused, Manoj Pujari and Jagannath Surve were waiting for him in the hut. They started assaulting Zagda and asked him to pay Rs 22 lakh that he allegedly owed Bharatiben. After torturing Zagda throughout the day, they released him the next day, after telling him that he would have to sell his factory and flat to repay the amount.

Zagda went to the Borivali police station the next day and filed a complaint. The police arrested Pujari soonafter. They seized the spoon, metal plate, revolver, gunny bag, and other tools that were used to torture Zagda. However, the accused were soon released on bail. Pujari was later killed in an encounter while Shetty jumped bail and has been absconding ever since. Bharatiben, who is now a paralytic patient and uses a wheelchair to move, was sentenced to one year imprisonment.