Woman arrested for kidnapping, robbing sr citizen FB friend

NAVI MUMBAI: Karjat police have detected a kidnapping and robbery case involving a 61-year-old man from Nagpur with the arrest of a woman, whom he had befriended on Facebook, and a male aide. One male accomplice is still at large.

The victim, who had retired from the Nagpur airport administration section, and the woman became friends as both were activists of the Ambedkarite movement.

Umesh Patil, police inspector of Karjat, said, "The arrested accused are Aditi Dhoke (25) and Sushil Jadhav (29), both residing in Karjat taluka. Their aide, identified as Ganesh alias Mangesh Pradhan from Pune, is being traced. Dhoke and Jadhav were traced after scanning multiple CCTV camera footages from Karjat station onwards, including the CCTV footages of the petrol pump where the kidnappers filled fuel. Also, the IP address of Dhoke's Facebook account on mobile was obtained to get vital leads, and her mobile tower location was tracked. They were arrested from different areas in Karjat taluka on Wednesday within 24 hours of registering an FIR. The Karjat JMFC court remanded them to police custody till Friday, March 13."

Sunil Gajghate, the complainant, said in the FIR registered on March 10 that he

went to Pune to meet his friend, K K Dange, who invited him for the farewell programme of his retirement from Pune airport. The next day, as he wanted to reach Nashik to meet his newly born grandson, his daughter, and his son-in-law, he boarded the Deccan Queen train. As Karjat station was on the way, he contacted Dhoke and told her that his train would reach Karjat at 5.45 pm, and he could alight and they could meet.

She messaged him to meet at a sweet mart outside Karjat station. She came driving a car, and they both travelled ahead. On the way, she halted when two men sat in the car, entering from both sides. While travelling, one of them held a chopper to his neck and threatened to kill him. They snatched his gold chain, two rings, two mobiles, and Rs 15,000 cash, with the collective valuation reaching Rs 2.15 lakh.

On the way, the woman halted the car at an ATM and, using his debit card and credit card, forcibly made him reveal the ATM PINs and withdrew some cash. One of the men who kept a chopper to his neck claimed that there were five murder cases against him and, to prevent being killed, told him not to raise an alarm. Then they took him to Dhoke's flat in Dahivali, Karjat, where they confined him.

On March 9 around 6.30 am, while the three kidnappers were asleep, he managed to escape.