Mumbai: Anoop Shetty, owner of Hotel Veera Residency at Chakala , Andheri (E) was kidnapped by a heavily -armed unknown person on Monday afternoon. Cut to 13 hours later, on Tuesday, the MIDC Police managed to not only rescue Shetty but also apprehended seven people, including an ex-manager of Hotel Veera , who allegedly conspired to do the kidnapping to extort money and take revenge.
The matter surfaced when Shetty was kidnapped from his hotel during which the kidnappers opened fire injuring him. Shetty was then pushed into a car and taken to an unidentified location. The accused later contacted Shetty’s family demanding a ransom of Rs. 50 lakhs.
How the hotelier was rescued
The police, who have registered a case of kidnapping, examined footage from a CCTV camera overlooking the scene of crime which showed the registration number of the car in which Shetty was taken away. The police also sent copies of the footage to crime intelligence unit to identify the kidnappers.
Several police units were deployed across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai as part of the search operations. One of the suspected accused’s phone location showed up somewhere in Mumbra, and along with the local police, they managed to trace and arrest two suspects. One among them was on his way to collect the ransom of Rs. 50 lakhs.
During the interrogation, it came to light that the planner of the kidnapping and the mastermind allegedly was Swapnil Avirkar, a 22-year-old man, who previously worked with at Hotel Veera as a manager. However, Avirkar and Shetty were not on good terms. Avirkar apparently wanted to take revenge and also extort money from his boss.
Avirkar made the plan with his brother and close associates and friends, and they all agreed to “support” him, said the police. The other accused were too arrested from various areas in Thane district. They were identified as Vijay Avirkar, 28, Vaibhav Jankar, 21, Chandrakant Avirkar, 30, Sagar Gangude, 26, Manjor Lokhande, 25 and Gurunath Vaghe, 18.
Weapons seized
The police have seized two air guns, two knives, eight mobile phones, a bike and an Innova car that were used in the crime.
Subsequently, charges under IPC sections 143, 144 (unlawful assembly), 397 (committing robbery or dacoity using deadly weapons), 384 (extortion), 364 (a) (kidnapping for ransom), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and other sections were registered along with the relevant sections of the Maharashtra Police Act and Arms Act.
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