In her complaint to the Dadar police, Surve, who stays with her parents in a rented flat at Prabhadevi had claimed that on Sunday afternoon, when she had come out of her house on Sunday afternoon to throw garbage, three unidentified men who were sitting in a parked Tata Sumo car had called her and enquired about an address. “When she went near the vehicle, the trio allegedly dragged her into the car and sprayed some liquid on her face. Suddenly, she became unconscious and fainted. Later, when became conscious, she discovered that she was in Virar and found herself tied to a tree in an isolated place,” said Sankhe.

According to Surve, she had managed to untie herself and flee from the place to escape from the kidnappers. “She claimed to have heard them talking that they wanted to kill her as their friend, Bobby alias Sujit Gosavi, had been jailed for the murder of Surve’s brother a year ago in Virar. Based on her complaint, we had registered a case of kidnapping and started enquiries to trace the identities and whereabouts of the accused,” Sankhe said.

However, a few days after the enquiries started, the police got some reasons to believe that the girl might be lying to make the case against Bobby stronger.

“Primarily, her allegation that she was picked up by the men from Prabhadevi on Sunday afternoon seems fishy for the simple reason that the place is crowded during that time. Also, someone is bound to see the incident. When we enquired about the incident with shopkeepers in the area, they did not recall any such incident on Sunday. Moreover, Surve had also claimed that while dragging her into the car, the men had sprayed some chemicals on her face.