Six people, posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths, allegedly kidnapped a Goregaon-based businessman at gunpoint and robbed him of ₹50 lakh in cash. The gang also bashed him up, threatened to kill him if he approached the police, and later abandoned him in Navi Mumbai’s Nerul.
Though the incident occurred in July, the 44-year-old man could not muster the courage to file a complaint until recently when he learned that four fake CBI officers had been arrested in Goregaon for allegedly trying to kidnap a share broker and extort ₹50 lakh from him. On Friday, a case was registered at Vanrai police station.
Virendra Mishra, additional commissioner of police, north region, said the same gang was involved in both cases.
According to the complainant, who is into business of advertisement hoardings and signboards, he had in January come in contact with one Ramkrishna Lal who suggested that he invest in one trade profit fund company. Later, Lal and his associate Jignesh Modi told him that he would get ₹1.80 crore within a short period against an investment of ₹1 crore.
The complainant agreed, but could manage only ₹50 lakh and did not disclose this to Lal and Modi.
On July 1, the complainant met Lal, Modi and two officials of the company at his office in Goregaon (East). One of the officials told the businessman that one Dr Yadav and Sunil Narvekar look after the company’s day-to-day affairs.
After this, the complainant, Lal, and one of the officials sat in his car where he showed them a bag filled with ₹50 lakh in cash.
“Two minutes later, two SUVs pulled up alongside my car and five-six people stepped out of them. A few of them forcefully got into my vehicle and showed their identity cards and claimed themselves to be CBI officers. They told me that I was carrying the money obtained by illegal means,” the complainant said.
They snatched the bag from him and then kidnapped the complainant at gunpoint in a Scorpio and assaulted him inside the moving vehicle. During their conversation they mentioned one Shridhar Pillai as their boss, he said.
The fake CBI officers then abandoned him at Nerul with a warning that he would be killed and his body would be dumped in Lonavla if he revealed the incident to anyone or pursued the matter with any law enforcement agency. Scared, the businessman returned home by an autorickshaw and did not file a complaint until two-and-a-half months later, an officer from Vanrai police station said.
A case has been registered against Yadav, Narvekar, Pillai, and others under sections 120B, 170, 364A, 386, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and 3 and 25 of the Arms Act.
People should not panic if anyone claims to be from the CBI, the National Investigation Agency, or any other law enforcement agencies, Mishra said. “You should first ask the ‘officer’ to show their ID card and if you have any doubt about its authenticity, you should dial police control room at 100. If the officers are real, they would stay, and the fake ones would flee. If they insist that you go with them to their office, ask them to first take you to the nearest police station. Any Central agency official would not object to this as they are doing their duty.”
Mishra also said that if someone has not indulged in any unlawful act, then they should not fear anyone, adding, both cases will now be investigated by the Goregaon police.