A CUMIN seeds trader and his partner, allegedly kidnapped by unidentified men from Ahmedabad Tuesday, were rescued by the Rajkot city police after the trader jumped off the moving car upon seeing a police control-room van (PCR) on Bhavnagar Road on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference Thursday, deputy commissioner of police (zone-II), Manoharsinh Jadeja said Bharat Patel (55), a cumin seeds (jeera) trader from Unjha in Mehsana, and his business partner Parth Patel, also from Unjha, were kidnapped from Sarkhej in Ahmedabad by five men who came in a car Tuesday. Police said the kidnapping took place when Bharat and Parth had come to deliver 50 bags of cumin seeds to one Hardik Patel in Sarkhej Tuesday noon. Bharat’s son Vishal had lodged a complaint of the kidnapping at Sarkhej police station in Ahmedabad.
Rajkot police said the five kidnappers took the trader and his business partner to a village near Bhavnagar city, kept them for the night and beat them up. The kidnappers brought the victims to Atkot, around 50 km away from Rajkot, and forced them into another car that drove them towards Rajkot. Meanwhile, upon seeing a PCR van of Rajkot police near the approach road of Mahika village near Aji Dam on Bhavnagar on the outskirts of Rajkot city around noon Wednesday, Bharat jumped out of the kidnappers’ car and told head constable Rajesh Jalu, the in-charge of the PCR, that he was kidnapped from Ahmedabad. He said his partner was still being held hostage in the kidnappers’ car.
Another police team eventually caught up with the kidnappers’ car near Tramba village and rescued 25-year-old Parth while detaining Javed Khira, a Jamnagar resident, who was driving the car.
Police claimed Prabhudas Bhensdadiya, also a cumin seeds trader from Moti Banugar village of Jamnagar and whose sister is married to Bharat, had plotted the kidnapping. “Alleging that Bharat’s son Vishal had purchased cumin seeds by giving his name, Bhensdadiya had demanded Rs 1.25 crore. But Bharat told him that he did not owe any money. Eventually, Bharat had agreed to pay Bhensdadiya Rs 25 lakh. For recovering the money that Bhensdadiya claimed Bharat owed him, the former plotted the kidnapping of Bharat and Parth,” Vikramsinh Chavda, police inspector of the Aji Dam police station of Rajkot city police, said.
After being caught, Khira told police that Nadeem Sumra, a resident of the Paddhari taluka of Rajkot, was also involved in the kidnapping and that he was coming towards Rajkot from Bhavnagar in a black-coloured car. Therefore, police also intercepted Sumra’s car near the Mahika approach road and detained him also.
“Nadeem is Banugariya’s driver and had played an active role in the kidnapping,” Chavda further said, adding Khira and Sumra will be handed over to Sarkhej police.
(EoM)