A businessman abducted from an area at the Ruby crossing on Sunday morning was rescued from a place in Malda on Monday.

Six persons have been arrested in this connection.

Anirban Hazra, 50, was abducted by a group of men who were waiting for him in a car in front of Vivanta Hotel, police said.

A resident of Ruchira Residency under the jurisdiction of Garfa police station, Hazra left his home around 7am on Sunday and did not return home.

In the evening, his wife complained to police after she received a ransom call for ₹20 lakh.

A case of kidnapping for ransom was drawn up at the Kasba police station. A team was set up to probe into the matter.

A joint operation was conducted by officers from Kolkata Police’s detective department, Garfa police station and a team from Malda. “We started tracking Hazra’s mobile tower location and collected the details of the vehicle from CCTV footage from the spot,” said a senior police officer.

“The abductors used an SUV that had a private registration number. Hazra’s call details revealed he spoke to his wife around noon on Sunday.”

Over the next few hours, the police team kept tracking Hazra’s mobile tower location as it kept shifting from parts of south Bengal to north Bengal.

Following specific leads after hours of search and information collection, the team reached Malda after it appeared that the abductors had kept Hazra somewhere in a place known as Mothabari.

The businessman was subsequently rescued.

“Primarily it appears the abduction was a fallout of business rivalry. Six persons have been arrested and five are from Mothabari. The fifth is from Malda’s Amritala in the Gangaprasad area,” the officer said. “The vehicle that was used was also recovered.”

The abductors were identified as Masum Ansari, 28, Rocky Ansari, 23, Golam Martuz, 26, Sheikh Jahangir, 27 and Sheikh Rahamat, 25.

“We will interrogate them further to know about how the plot was hatched,” the officer said.