Kidnapping claim of navy man who was 'burnt alive' may be fiction: Police

Palghar: A Navy seaman from Jharkhand who died in Maharashtra's Palghar district after allegedly being set on fire by his kidnappers had concocted the whole story of abduction, police claimed on Wednesday, according to an NDTV report.

Leading Seaman Surajkumar Mitilesh Dube, 27, who was posted at a naval base at Coimbatore, was indebted heavily due to losses in the stock market and was depressed, police said.

A probe is still underway to ascertain whether he had been kidnapped and burnt alive or it was suicide, said Palghar Superintendent of Police Dattatreya Shinde at a press conference. Surajkumar Mitilesh Dube, who was found with burn injuries in Palghar district near Mumbai on the early morning of February 5, had told police before dying the same day, that three men kidnapped him at gunpoint outside Chennai airport on the night on January 30.

They brought him to Palghar in an SUV and set him on fire when they realized they would not get the ransom, he said.

However, the probe found several loopholes in the story, SP Shinde said.

According to SP Shinde, Surajkumar Mitilesh Dube had incurred heavy losses in the stock market and had run up huge debts but he had concealed this from his family.

The police found that Dube had been moving around freely in Chennai after January 30, withdrawn money from ATM, and even travelled to Vellore.

From the collected CCTV footage, the police also found that Surajkumar Mitilesh Dube had bought two cans of diesel from a petrol pump in Talasari in Palghar around 5.30 on the morning of February 5.

All of this lead to a suspicion among the investigating officers that Dube set himself on fire in a suicide bid, the SP said, adding that the police had not reached any definitive conclusions yet.

Surajkumar Mitilesh Dube had got engaged on January 15 and he was to get married on May 22, police said.