Pune: A Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch team arrested five men and rescued a 43-year-old building material supplier near Sangamner in Ahilyanagar district, within six hours of his abduction from Kalewadi on Monday evening. The abductors had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh.Police recovered two country-made pistols, six cartridges, a car, and the victim’s expensive wristwatch, collectively worth Rs 18 lakh, from the arrested men. Another suspect was arrested in Kalewadi for allegedly planning the abduction.According to police, the gang, posing as police personnel from Uttar Pradesh, abducted the supplier around 5.15 pm on Monday. They stopped his two-wheeler in a lane in Shivrajnagar. When the victim tried to escape, one of the men kicked his two-wheeler, causing him to fall. They then forced him into a black hatchback and drove away.“The accused used the victim’s cellphone to contact his brother. They demanded Rs 50 lakh and threatened to kill him if the money was not paid,” Shivaji Pawar, deputy commissioner of police (crime), Pimpri Chinchwad, told TOI.Following the abduction, Pimpri Chinchwad police chief Vinoy Kumar Choubey formed eight teams to track the suspects and rescue the victim. The police traced the car toward Nashik and deployed a team to Ale Phata, where the abductors had instructed the victim’s brother to bring the ransom.“We also alerted Ahilyanagar police. Our anti-extortion squad set up a trap at a toll plaza near Sangamner and, with local police support, apprehended the five suspects,” Pawar said.The accused had abandoned the victim at Chandanapuri Ghat on the Pune-Nashik highway after an accomplice in Kalewadi alerted them about police movements. “Assistant inspector Harish Mane of the anti-gunda squad and his team located the victim around 12.30 am on Tuesday. Before leaving him, the abductors transferred Rs 60,000 from his UPI account,” the DCP added.The suspect arrested from Kalewadi, Santan Chauhan (35), originally from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, runs a building material supply business and had previously worked for the victim. “He, along with the five other men from Pratapgarh and Azamgarh, planned the abduction. They had arrived in Pune only three days before the incident,” Pawar said.The arrested accused have been handed over to the Kalewadi police and are scheduled to be produced before the court on Wednesday.
