Pune crime: 4 held for abducting structural designer

Personnel from Shivajinagar police station arrested four persons on charges of kidnapping a 72-year-old structural designer about four months ago.

The police have identified the quartet as Raju Chandrakant Tilekar (31) of Dapodi, Shiva Kashinath Vhanmane (34) of Model Colony, Shivanand Siddhanna Guddodagi (23) of Bibwewadi, and Pravin Sitaram Birajdar (22) of Solapur. They have been remanded in police custody till March 21. The victim, Vijay Vyankatesh Ruikar, had lodged a first information report in this regard.

Sub-inspector Prasad Pawar said Tilekar was working with the complainant. Tilekar had an outstanding loan of Rs 40 lakh, which he wanted to pay off immediately.

So, he conspired and abducted Ruikar on November 27, 2013. Later, he called up Ruikar's wife and demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore.

Meanwhile, Ruikar had managed to rescue himself from the miscreants after he was taken to a place Nagar Road the same day. Police have seized the car used in the offence.

MiD DAY had reported the incident on December 5 (‘Rs 1-crore ransom demand from structural designer').