NCP members force cops to hush up 'kidnapping' drama

NAGPUR: A handful of Nationalist Congress Party senior functionaries made the city police dance to their tune to hush up a 'kidnapping' drama of a well-connected advocate, at the Sakkardara police station on Saturday. The advocate, who is in his 50s, is related to a high-profile high court judge and a senior NCP politician.
He had initially claimed that three men and two young women, including his former junior attorney, had kidnapped him for a ransom of Rs 50 lakh and also demanded a row house situated in the city outskirts.Since the police is loathe to registering an offence, TOI is holding the advocate's name back.
The city police, who received a complaint of kidnapping from the advocate's family, finally had to play the peacemakers' role. The advocate could have landed in soup as he had been close to the former attorney for a decade despite being married with two grown up sons. He could have been booked for rape, bigamy and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act too. Police sources told TOI that the woman, who too could have faced kidnapping charges, had said that he had married him a decade ago.
Sources close to city police chief Ankush Dhanvijay said there was immense pressure on him to hush up the case. Strangely, deputy commissioner of police (zone 4) Nishith Mishra was not present at the Sakkardara police station when the high drama was being played out. It was not known why DCP Ambadas Pote of zone II was present to handle the case. Dhanvijay remained silent on the issue despite repeated messages being sent to him.
Senior inspector Appasaheb Lengde of Sakkardara police station said that the advocate and the woman had given in writing that they did not want to register any complaint.
"I was aware when the kidnapping problem cropped up, but I was kept in the dark subsequently," said Mishra.
To confound matters, when police checked the advocate's call details it came to fore that he had spoken twice to a notorious criminal from Ajni. The criminal could not be found when the police went to his house.
Dhanvijay asked his men to track the advocate through his call detail records the moment his family called in with the missing complaint at the Sitabuldi police station.
When the police went to the advocate's house at Civil Lines, his wife said that she had received a call from him saying he was injured. The advocate had left the house to pray at the Bada Tajbagh dargah in Sakkardara. His phone was switched off after that. The family then contacted several top politicians who got involved in the matter.
The family members informed the police about the junior attorney but added that the senior advocate had distanced himself from her since the last four months. The police went to the woman's house in Gopal Nagar and Ekatma Nagar but were unable to trace her.
Sources in Sakkardara police station said that there were several contradictions in the statements of both the advocate and the woman. One of the versions was that the woman attorney was miffed spotting the advocate with another young woman near Tajbagh following which she asked a friend to help her abduct the senior advocate. Then, they forcibly took the advocate to an apartment at Narsala where he received a thrashing.
Another version that was making the rounds was that the two women had taken the advocate to the woman attorney's residence at Ekatma Nagar where he had spent the night. She also called up the advocate's wife to tell her that he was with her now.
On Saturday morning, the women took the attorney to a sweet shop near Dighori Naka. He managed to raise an alarm and was 'rescued' by bystanders. The advocate and the woman attorney were then brought to the Sakkardara police station where they were joined by the NCP members who pulled enough strings to ensured that no formal complaints were registered.