Mumbai: Missing diamond merchant found in Nashik

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A Diamond merchant, whose wife had registered a missing person's complaint at the Tardeo police station on October 7, was finally found in a hotel room near the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi, Nashik. The scanning of diamond merchant Rajesh Sadiwala's bank account transactions helped cops trace him.

A senior police officer told mid-day that his family had suspected Sadiwala had been kidnapped by his business rival. His sudden disappearance had also left the bullion market shocked. "We had been considering all possible angles while looking for him," the officer said. Four special teams of police officers were formed to investigate the case. "They were asked to check Call Data Records (CDR) of the diamond merchant and technical evidences like CCTV cameras," said an officer privy to the investigation.

Meanwhile, the top cops were also subjected to "pressure from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)", asking them to fast track the investigation. "Sadiwala's relative, who works at the PMO, managed to ensure this pressure from New Delhi," the senior officer added.

Sadiwala was found to be moving from Mumbai to adjacent states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and hence another team of special detection officers including PSI Arun Thorat was formed with senior inspector Sanjay Surve monitoring all the teams.

"Sadiwala first withdrew Rs 20,000 from an ATM at Mumbai Central and boarded a Gujarat-bound train on October 7. But, he did not reach Gujarat. This alarmed us and we scanned his bank account transactions. Our team checked CCTV footage of all possible places that Sadiwala visited," said another senior police officer.

Finally, when Sadiwala reached Nashik and paid the hotel rent using his debit card, the investigating teams detained him and brought him back to Mumbai. During investigation, the cops learnt that Sadiwala had taken loans worth lakhs before disappearing. "He had left the city in a state of panic and switched off his mobile phone," said an officer at the Tardeo police station.

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