Nagpur: While addressing a press meet, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ranjan Kumar Sharma said that in the Ajay Raut kidnapping and extortion of a huge sum of money, the Crime Branch has recovered a stash of money during the police custodial remand.
- Rs Two lakhs fifty four thousand from Mangesh Shende.
- Rs Forty lakhs from Diwakar Baban Kotulwar and
- Rs Ninety nine lakhs ninety six thousand from Raju Vithal Bhadre.
In all totaling an amount of Rs One crore forty two lakhs fifty thousand has been recovered from the accused by the Crime Branch personnel.
While an amount of Rs five lakhs fifty thousand has already been deposited in the Bank account of Rana Pratapnagar Police station, a sum of Rs Fifty two lakhs and fifty thousand were displayed to the media personnel. Sources in the crime branch said that they have information about the location of Rs 42,000 in another spot which they were going to recover tonight.
Today’s Rate
Tuesday 05 Nov. 2024
The above action has been carried out by police personnel of Crime Branch led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Nilesh Raut and under the guidance of Commissioner of Police S P Yadav, Joint Police Commissioner Rajwardhan, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ranjan Kumar Sharma.
According to Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ranjan Kumar Sharma, the distribution of money was as under:
- Raju Bhadre Rs 1 crore
- Mangesh Shende Rs 2.5 lakhs
- Diwakar Kotulwar Rs 40 lakhs.
The cash from Raju Bhadre was recovered from two empty rooms in the building owned by Raju Bhadre on Plot No 4 of Bhande Layout on February 16, 2016.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ranjan Kumar Sharma added that the crime branch personnel cannot give a clear-cut modus operandi since the accused are said to be giving different stories or versions at different times. In the morning, they gave one version with certain names, while the statement or version changed by evening with a different set of names.
The brother of the main accused Raju Bhadre identified as Sanjay is not clear so far. His only role was to hand-over a bag given by Mende to another person.
Deepak Munnot one of the friends of the victim Ajay Raut had given Rs fifty lakhs which he owed to the victim. The remaining amount was procured from another friend of the victim.
Ranjan Sharma also clarified that since Ajay Raut is a bookie, the accused found him to be a soft target.
The Background: It could be mentioned here that Ajay Raut aged 45 years and a resident of Trimurtinagar, Nagpur was kidnapped on December 11, 2015 at around 2: 45 pm. When the victim was travelling on his moped and going towards Cosmos Town Square, some 3-4 unknown goons had come on a white coloured Scorpio and stopped the victim, attacked him and then thrust him inside the Scorpio. The goons kidnapped the victim Ajay Raut and called the victim’s family and threatened to kill him and his family members.
The kidnappers had allegedly demanded Rs One crore seventy five lakhs from the victim’s family to release Ajay Raut safely. On being released, the victim Ajay Raut had approached Deputy Commissioner of Police Ranjan Kumar Sharma and lodged a complaint of being kidnapped. On the basis of his complaint registered on December 28, 2015, the cops of Rana Pratap Police Station had started a detailed investigation into the crime.
The accused arrested in this crime have since confessed to their crime. Similarly on the basis of the statement given by one of the main accused Diwakar Kotulwar, it has come to fore that with the help of all the co-accused they had conspired to carry out this kidnapping and extortion.
The entire modus-operandi of the crime also has come to fore. According to Crime Branch, the main accused in this kidnapping and extortion is said to be Diwakar Kotulwar, Raju Bhadre and Mangesh Shende.
It has also come to fore that Raju Bhadre and Diwakar Kotulwar had kidnapped the victim (Ajay Raut) and had taken the victim to a hut behind Raju Bhadre’s house and how they made the victim to call his friends to give him Rs one crore and seventy five lakhs.
On the basis of the investigation carried out so far, it has come to fore that Diwakar Kotulwar had formed a gang of goons and had been carrying out criminal activities including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, kidnapping and extortion etc.
The entire action has been initiated under the Section 3 of MCOCA.
Similarly, the Swift VDI car used in the kidnapping was recovered from Mangesh Shende. The accused mentioned below have been taken into remand.
- Nitin Sunil Waghmare aged 27 years and resident of Bhilgaon, Kamptee Road.
- Ashish Virendra Naidu aged 28 years and resident of Beli Shop, Panchpaoli.
- Kartik Shivramakrishnan Tewar aged 27 years and resident of Christian Colony, Jaripatka.
- Bharat alias Rahul Sushil Dubey aged 23 years and resident of Bhonslewadi, Motibagh.
- Mangesh Nathujibishen Shende aged 29 years and resident of Dixit Nagar, Nagpur.
- Diwakar Baban Kotulwar aged 31 years and resident of Manish Nagar, Sonegaon.
- Raju Vithalrao Bhadre resident of Bhande Plot, Nagpur.
