NRG pays for friends’ sins

A gambling habit has resulted in the kidnapping of an NRG and the loss of Rs27.76 lakh. Bharat Patel was allegedly abducted by his one-time friend and business partner, Jitendra Dhirajlal Vohra, and his associates from a spot near a Reliance petrol pump and Bopal on Monday afternoon.

Patel was released by his kidnappers on Tuesday night. He filed a complaint in this connection at the Sarkhej police station on Thursday.

Patel, a resident of Nirman Tower at Chanakyapuri, falling under the Ghatlodia police station, had returned from the US, where he had worked for more than 10 years, in 2002. His wife, son and daughter currently reside in Chicago.

Around a year ago, Patel and Vohra had gambled along with Hiren Patel, Yogesh Patel and Suresh Patel, who were friends of the former and NRGs.

The latter three had subsequently lost Rs1.9 crore, but had been unable to repay the amount. They had said they would send the amount from US, and Patel had assured Vohra of this.

A few months after this, Patel paid Vohra Rs8 lakh on behalf of his friends and promised to arrange for the rest. However, his friends were unable to send the rest of the amount and Vohra then threatened Patel with dire consequences if he did not receive the rest, and extracted Rs13 lakh from Patel.

On Monday, Milan Thakker, a friend of Vohra, telephoned Nilesh Patel, a friend of Bharat Patel, asking him to join him in gambling. That afternoon, the latter two and a third, Jignesh Patel, drove to Bopal in a WagonR car to where Nilesh Thakker was waiting for them.

The group then went to a flat at Sun City in Bopal, where five people, two identified as Timin and Raju and Milan Thakker being the third, were waiting. Thakker called Vohra, who had been hiding in an adjoining room, and the seven of them assaulted Bharat, Nilesh and Jignesh and took them to a village at Viramgam, 130 km from Ahmedabad.
The kidnappers took Bharat Patel’s ATM card and house keys. One of them then withdrew Rs50,000 from his bank account and took cash amounting to Rs1.76 lakh and jewellery from his home. They also withdrew Rs5 lakh from another of Bharat’s accounts, in Vijaya Bank, by forcing him to sign on three blank cheques.

The kidnappers again threatened Bharat and asked him to call two friends, Vikram and Kalpesh, from whom they extracted Rs20.15 lakh through aangadia. On Tuesday night, Bharat, Nilesh and Jignesh were set free near Bopal lake.

Sarkhej PI JP Rawal said the police had noted down the registration number of the Honda City car used by the kidnappers. The Sarkhej police and the crime branch are investigating the case.

Meanwhile, Bharat Patel denied the fact that Vohra had been his business partner, claiming that the latter was a resident of Nava Wadaj and had been involved in many incidents of burglary.