Initially, the goons had demanded Rs 5 crore, but after some negotiation, agreed on Rs 12 lakh cash; the remaining amount was taken from him in the form of gold jewellery
Representational picture of a man abducted and tied up
A group of three robbers waylaid a 30-year-old real estate agent on July 23 evening, abducted him and extorted cash and jewellery worth Rs 13 lakh from him. The victim was so scared that he managed to report the matter to the Mahim police station only on July 28. The Crime Branch too, is conducting a parallel investigation in the matter.
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According to the police, the incident occurred between 4.30pm and 5pm at Raheja junction near Macchimaar Colony when complainant Harshal Manjarekar was on his way to Bandra from his house. "When his car reached Raheja junction, another vehicle suddenly arrived at the spot and overtook his car. After going ahead for a distance, one of the passengers in the other vehicle signaled at Manjarekar's driver asking him to stop the car," said a police officer.
Culprits pose as cops
"As soon as the car stopped, three people got off and rushed towards the complainant's vehicle. When Manjarekar lowered his window pane, one of the trio reached inside, opened the door and got into the car," said the officer. "His accomplices then asked the driver to get off," he added. Soon after one of the culprits started driving the car towards Sion. Meanwhile, the two others sitting with Manjarekar told him that they were from the Crime Branch and had come to investigate him.
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When the car reached Sion, one of the men told Manjrekar that they had to go to Panvel as another person had to picked up for the investigation. "On reaching Panvel around midnight, the kidnappers asked Manjarekar to call up his driver and ask him to pick up as much money as possible from his home. Initially, they had demanded Rs5 crore but later they agreed on Rs10 lakh. Then driver Akshay Pujari took the cash from Manjarekar's house and reached Panvel," the officer said.
The culprits had asked the driver to keep the bag of cash at a bus stop near the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation building in Belapur and then reach Kharghar railway station, where Manjarekar's car was parked. Speaking to mid-day, Milind Gandakush, senior PI of Mahim police station, said, "As Manjarekar was scared, he did not reach out to us immediately. He filed a complaint in the matter on July 28 evening. An FIR has been registered under IPC sections 365 (kidnapping), 341 (wrongful restrain), 384 (extortion), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and 34 (common intention)."
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No trace left
As per preliminary information, the culprits had made the calls to the driver from Manjarekar's phone. The complainant had also told the cops that the kidnappers were fluent in Marathi and they had also robbed him of four gold rings and a rudraksh chain apart from R12 lakh cash.
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