Khandwa jeweller still untraceable

INDORE: More than 72 hours after a middle-aged Khandwa-based jeweller Rajesh Jain was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified persons from Vijay Nagar area of Indore, the trader still remains untraceable.
With no ransom call being received by the kidnapped jeweller's family in Khandwa or his business partners during the last three days, the entire kidnapping episode has become mysterious.
Jeweller's cell-phone was reportedly used to inform his business partner Santosh Jain about the kidnapping within half an hour of the incident and also to demand Rs 5 crore ransom to free him. But no ransom call has been made since then. Both Khandwa district police and Indore police crime branch are jointly investigating the high-profile kidnapping, but are yet to get any clinching clues.
"Many teams are working but no major clue or breakthrough has till now been achieved in the case," SP (Khandwa) Manoj Kumar Sharma told TOI on Tuesday.
According to sources, the investigators are now zeroing on similar kidnappings in other parts of the state.
Investigating teams have been sent to Shahdol, Jabalpur and Sagar districts of MP to study the modus operandi in a few recent cases of failed kidnappings of traders.
Rajesh Jain, 45, was allegedly kidnapped in his own Maruti Swift car by two persons with whom he had come to Indore to finalize a land deal on Saturday evening. The car was recovered near Bombay Hospital in Indore on Sunday. According to Rajesh's business partner Santosh Jain, the kidnappers, who were staying at Ranjit Hotel in Khandwa since August 17 had approached the jeweller through some property brokers.
The duo who posed to be representatives of a Delhi-based construction company had accompanied Rajesh from Khandwa to Indore in the name of finalizing a deal to buy seven acres of land owned by the jeweller on Khandwa-Indore Road.