Four arrested for kidnapping farmer

Nashik, Oct 08 (UNI) Four people have been arrested here for kidnapping a farmer and demanding money from him.

According to police sources, four people-- Mahendra Jadhav (41), Kailas Bankar (40), Vishnu Dhage (41) and Suresh Mande (40) - were arrested late last night for kidnapping Anaji Kandekar (56), a resident of Jategaon taluka of the district. Police also seized some weapons and a vehicle from them.

As per the complaint lodged by the kidnapped farmer, he had sold 184 Guntha land owned by his father-in-law, to Mahendra Jadhav, a month ago. On October 5, the accused had got the land measured from certain people, who had said that the land was 10 Guntha less. They then demanded Rs 5 lakh for the land and also threatened Kandekar.

On October 7, when the farmer was travelling in an MSRTC bus from Jotegaon to Nashik at Talegaon, the four accused allegedly kidnapped Kandekar and imprisoned him at advocate Uday Raje's chamber in Nashik court premises. They told Kandekar's nephew Dnyanesh to bring Rs 5 lakh and threatened to kill Kandekar in case of failure in doing so.

After recieving the information, the city police commissioner Himanshu Roy sent a special police team to rescue the farmer. Police arrested the four accused. This operation has disclosed a racket of people, who used to force farmers to sell their lands, police said.

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