Hours after being abducted for Rs 25 lakh ransom, flower merchant from Kolhapur village found dead

KOLHAPUR: A 40-year-old flower merchant, Bharatesh Topgonda, from Danoli village near Jaysingpur in Kolhapur, was found dead in the fields hours after his relatives lodged an abduction complaint.

One of Topgonda's cousins received a call on Monday night from unknown callers, who told him that his brother had been kidnapped and would be released only upon payment of Rs 25 lakh as ransom. Within a couple of hours, Topgonda's relatives arranged for the money and also informed the police.

The alleged abductors, however, kept changing the address where the money was to be dropped. However, post-midnight, their calls stopped. During a search near the village, Topgonda's relatives found his body in the fields in an area called Sheri Mala.

His family members had also shared the call recording of the abductors with some villagers. When the villagers heard the voices, they concluded that the suspects were from Danoli and had a criminal history." We have taken custody of two suspects. They have serious crimes, including of attempted murder, registered against them. They are from the same village and were familiar with the merchant. The postmortem will reveal the exact cause of death," said Amol Thakur, the sub-divisional police officer.

Local villagers, meanwhile, are angry over an alleged delayed response from the police. They claim the deceased man's relatives were kept waiting till 3am to file the complaint. They added that villagers were able to find the body before the police could, and even Jaysingpur MLA Rajendra Patil Yadravkar reached the crime scene before the police.

The police learnt that an electric device, used to give shocks to bullocks at cart races, was used to torture the merchant. According to sources, the two suspects had earlier planned to abduct another prominent person from the village. But as the plan failed, they decided to trap Topgonda instead while he was on his way to his house in the farms away from the village.The deceased is survived by a brother with learning difficulties, mother, wife and two children.

"We have called a bandh in Danoli on Wednesday. The police have failed to respond. Had they responded on time, Bharatesh would have been saved. We also suspect that the two accused must have been working on the directions of someone else," said Ram Shinde, a resident of the village.
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