The Mumbai police appear to be going soft on those connected to the ruling Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) even if the allegations against them are serious in nature. Take the case of Raj Surve, son of MLA Prakash Surve. A case was registered against him and 15 others at Vanrai police station in Goregaon (East) on August 10 for allegedly kidnapping a businessman at gunpoint for ransom. But till date he has not been arrested by the police. The police said they have arrested nine people, but when asked about Raj Surve they say that “the investigation is on”.
The complaint was lodged by Rajkumar Jagdish Singh, 38, a resident of Goregaon (East) and the CEO of Global Music Junction Private Limited, a company specialising in digital collateral loans.
Manoj Mishra, 30, another businessman from Patna, Bihar, borrowed Rs8 crore from Singh’s company in 2021 for a YouTube channel project. The agreement specified that Mishra would repay Rs 11 crore to Singh over a period of five years.
According to the complainant, Mishra diverted the loan for purposes other than the YouTube channel, resulting in reduced profits for Singh’s company. Global Music Junction requested Mishra to utilise the loan for its intended purpose, but Mishra sought additional funds, which Singh declined. In 2022, Mishra began pressuring Singh to cancel the agreement. In 2023, when they reached a settlement, Singh transferred Rs 1 crore to Mishra’s company between June and July.
On August 9, at 3.20pm, Singh received a call from an individual claiming to be from Prakash Surve’s office, demanding his presence there. When Singh enquired about the caller’s identity, they threatened him, saying, “I am your father, you better come here.” Singh agreed to visit on Saturday.
Singh Was Kidnapped From His Office By 10-12 Individuals
Subsequently, around 10 to 12 individuals forcibly entered Singh’s office. They abused and assaulted him before taking him to Prakash Surve’s office at gunpoint, where Raj and Manoj Mishra were present. Raj instructed Singh to resolve Mishra’s issue immediately or face detention. They then moved Singh to the first floor of another building. Mishra and others allegedly threatened Singh, forced him to sign a document cancelling the agreement at gunpoint. Singh’s relatives and the police were present at Prakash Surve’s office when he arrived. Initially, Singh refrained from filing a complaint due to the tense situation, but he later went to the Vanrai police station.
The FIR was registered against Manoj Mishra, Raj, Vicky Shetty, and unidentified individuals. The case includes various charges under the Indian Penal Code, including 364(A) (kidnapping for ransom), 452 (house trespass), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly for a common offence), 323 (causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), as well as Sections 3 (carrying firearms) and 25 (carrying prohibited arms) of the Arms Act.
Another Case Involves Shinde Sena Leader From Byculla
The second case is that of the brutal attack on Dharmesh Solanki, secretary of a housing society in Mazgaon. On October 6, Solanki (50) was stabbed by two motorcyclists. The attack was so severe that it’s a sheer miracle how the victim survived it. In his complaint, Solanki told the police that the men told him that he was being attacked since he opposed Yashwant Jadhav, a leader of Shinde Sena.
Even though Solanki insisted that Jadhav’s name be included in the FIR, the Byculla police have flatly refused to do that. The attack was allegedly a sequel to the cancellation of a redevelopment agreement that Solanki’s housing society had entered into with a construction firm. The cancellation was done since the company had failed to give the promised corpus fund of Rs1 crore and also because the society came to know that one of the partners in the firm, Bimal Agarwal, had a criminal record
