Man assaults friend over loan dispute, threatens to remove his kidney; booked

A man from Navi Mumbai allegedly thrashed his 34-year-old friend and also threatened to remove his kidney after the latter failed to repay a loan, police said on Thursday.

The alleged incident took place on August 9, but the victim, an auto-rickshaw driver from Akurli at Panvel in Navi Mumbai, lodged a police complaint on August 26, they said, without specifying any reason or the delay.

A case was subsequently registered against the accused.

The victim and the accused, also a resident of Panvel, had been friends for more than a decade.

In 2018, the victim took a loan (amount not specified) from a private bank to purchase an auto-rickshaw and his friend stood as the guarantor.

According to the complaint, the auto-rickshaw driver failed to repay the loan instalments, resulting in the bank seizing his vehicle and freezing the guarantor’s account, an official from Panvel police station said.

On August 9, both the men visited the bank where they were asked to clear the dues of Rs 36,000.

Following the bank visit, the accused allegedly took his friend to his residence at Vajegaon in Panvel on a motorbike under the pretext of discussing the matter further, the official said.

At his home, the accused made his friend sit on a chair, and then allegedly tied his hands and legs and stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth before assaulting him, the police said.

“The accused threatened to administer a tranquiliser to the victim, remove his kidney and sell his blood if he didn’t pay up,” the official said.

During the course of the assault, the accused allegedly snatched Rs 12,300 cash from the victim’s pocket before abandoning him, he said.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the accused under multiple Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections, including 127(7) (wrongful confinement), 118(1) and 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), the police said.