Birbhum police with the help of their East Midnapore counterparts on Saturday rescued the abducted Visva-Bharati research scholar of Myanmar from Odisha's Talsari.

Twelve persons have been arrested, eight from East Midnapore and four from Birbhum.

Pannacara Than, a research scholar of the Sanskrit department of Visva-Bharati, was allegedly abducted from his rented house in Bolpur by seven persons who came in a black SUV on Thursday.

Kovida, Than's friend also from Myanmar, lodged a complaint with Visva-Bharati that was later forwarded to Bolpur police. Police started a criminal case of abduction.

"Within 30 hours of abduction, we could rescue the foreign student from Talsari of Odhisa and arrest 12 persons for their involvement in the crime. We seized two vehicles used in the abduction and recovered the victim's phone. The motive of the abduction is a dispute over some business that apparently is not legal," said Birbhum police superintendent Raj Narayan Mukherjee without revealing the details of the "illegal" business.

A police source hinted that an international racket involved in smuggling human hair was behind Than's abduction. The kidnap could have happened over a dispute over money.