A man who runs a placement agency in the city with his elder sister was allegedly kidnapped from a Howrah hotel, drugged and forcibly taken to Vizag where his kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 70 lakh.
A Baruipur police team rescued him and brought him to Calcutta on Friday night.
Police said P.A. Lova Kumar, who runs his business in Sonarpur, was approached by some people from Andhra Pradesh as prospective clients who wanted to meet him at a hotel in Howrah where they were staying.
“The complainant and his sister run a placement agency and help people get jobs. The accused had approached them as job seekers,” said an officer of Baruipur police.
Kumar went to the hotel in his car and asked his driver to wait till he returned. After a few hours, when Kumar did not return or respond to calls, the driver returned to Sonarpur and alerted Kumar’s sister.
Three days later, Kumar’s sister N.V. Usha Rani received a ransom call demanding Rs 70 lakh. The police said the family provided details of some of the men whom Kumar had gone to meet.
Rani reported the matter to Sonarpur police station. The cops suggested to the family that they agree to pay the ransom so the kidnappers could be tracked. “The ransom amount was negotiated down to Rs 53 lakh. A location was fixed in Vizag where the money was to be delivered in person,” said the officer.
A team of officers of Sonarpur police station, under Baruipur police district, reached Vizag and laid a trap at the spot where the money was to be handed over, the police said.
“The kidnappers had threatened dire consequences if police were involved. Two men — whose photographs we had from the leads the victim’s family provided — came on a bike to conduct a recce of the spot where they were to collect the money. Our team was hiding there and caught the bikers and started interrogating them,” the officer said.
During interrogation, it emerged that Kumar was in a car parked only 200 metres away. The cops located the car and nabbed two men guarding Kumar, the police said.
All four men were brought to Calcutta on Friday. The cops suspect at least 12 others were involved in the kidnapping.
“The accused are claiming they gave money to Kumar and his sister for jobs but they did not deliver. However, they have not been able to produce any documentary evidence. If they were cheated, they should have reported to police,” said a senior officer of Baruipur police station.