According to police, on Tuesday evening, Kunal Belose was having dinner with his friends at a restaurant at Babai Naka, Borivli (W) when he was picked up, pushed into a Matiz car and taken away by the kidnappers. Kunal's friend Nikhil Gokhale was also picked up from another spot at Borivli by the abductors.

Kunal's friends then lodged a complaint with Borivli police who then rescued the college students after intercepting the Matiz car on the Western Express Highway before the Sanjay Gandhi National Park early Wednesday morning.

The arrested officers were identifed as PSI Sanjay Patil, attached to the Special Protection Unit, and the official bodyguard of a filmstar, PSI Deepak Ingole, attached to airport security. Sharpshooter of the Chhota Rajan gang Robin Newade and his associates Ajay Singh and Vihar Mistry were alsoheld.

Police said the gangsters had overheard the two students engaged in frivolous discussions and felt they knew about a gold transaction that had taken place recently. They kidnapped the two to extract information about the suspected transaction, police said.

While Borivli court remanded the police personnel to judicial custody, the others were remanded to police custody. However, police cannot make any further investigation into the two cops' involvement in the case unless they get police custody. ``We are making efforts to take those policemen into our custody. Only then can our investigation make progress,'' said a senior police officer. Police are also investigating the antecedents of the cops as they suspect they must have been involved in similar cases in the past, police said.

This is the third incident in the last month and a half involving the arrest of policemen. Earlier, two police constables were arrested by Goregaon police for allegedly extorting money from a motor mechanic.