Key Takeaways:
- In Pune, a cop ‘kidnaps’ a cryptocurrency trader, who is being held with six other people from Mumbai.
- Constable Dilip Khandare formerly served in the cyber crime unit, where he acquired advanced training in cyber crime investigation and mobile forensics.
The investigation into a kidnapping case in which a Pune trader was kidnapped and released the next day has led Pimpri-Chinchwad Police to uncover a plot allegedly hatched by a serving police constable.
Constable Dilip Khandare was previously assigned to the cybercrime cell, where he received training in advanced cybercrime investigation and mobile forensics. According to investigators, he devised a plot to kidnap the trader using information gained during posting about his possession of vast sums of cryptocurrency.
Khandare, who is currently stationed at the Pimpri Chinchwad Police headquarters, was arrested along with seven others by officials from the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police’s Wakad police station. Six of the defendants apprehended are from Mumbai.
On January 14, a man approached Wakad police, claiming that his 40-year-old friend, a share market equities trader, had been kidnapped while staying at a hotel in the Tathawade area. On January 15, the trader was liberated and dropped in the Wakad area by his captors.
“After the initial arrests, the investigative team detained three more people from a hotel in the Hinjewadi area, named Pradeep Kate, Sanjay Bansal, and Shirish Khot,” stated Deputy Commissioner of Police Anand Bhoite.
When he was assigned to the cybercrime cell in Pune, he learned that the trader owned large amounts of cryptocurrency and devised a plan to kidnap him for ransom…”
According to Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissioner Krishna Prakash, orders have been issued to initiate disciplinary action against the arrested constable to dismiss him from the force.
The trader later told police that he had been kidnapped for ransom in Bitcoin cryptocurrency and Rs 8 lakh in cash. Working from additional leads provided by the trader after his return, the police initially arrested four people from Mumbai: Sunil Shinde, Vasant Chavan, Francis D’Souza, and Mayur Shirke. According to interrogation, they acted at the request of two Pune citizens, Pradeep Kate and Dilip Khandare, according to interrogation. Two more Mumbai citizens were found to be involved after further investigation.
