Surat: The Pandesara police arrested five men for allegedly abducting a businessman from his unit in Pandesara GIDC on Wednesday afternoon. The accused had arrived in an SUV from Malegaon. Preliminary investigation suggests the abduction was linked to a payment dispute.According to police, the victim, Prashant Sarvaiya, runs a plastic granules business and owns a unit in Pandesara GIDC. On Wednesday morning, he was at work when the accused — Soyeb Akhtar Momin (28), Vasim Ahmed Shaikh (31), Asfaq Ansari (30), Mohammad Jan Ansari (31) and Abdul Ansari (42), all residents of Malegaon — reached the unit.The men went to Sarvaiya’s office on the first floor and began assaulting him. After some time, they dragged him to the ground floor while continuing to beat him. They abused and threatened him before forcing him into a Maharashtra-registered SUV and fleeing with him.An employee of the unit, Prince Gurjar, informed Sarvaiya’s son Nishit and also called the police helpline 112. Police teams soon reached the spot and gathered details of the incident.Pandesara police inspector J R Chaudhary said, “We learned that the accused were from Malegaon and alerted toll plazas as well as Tapi police, anticipating that they might take that route to return to their native place. Acting on the alert, Tapi district LCB intercepted the vehicle at a toll plaza, rescued Sarvaiya and arrested all five accused.”Police said the initial probe indicates that Sarvaiya had purchased plastic granules from the accused but refused to make full payment, alleging that the material supplied was of poor quality. The pending amount was around Rs 4 lakh. “This appears to have triggered the incident, though we are probing if any other angle is involved,” Chaudhary added.
