Bihar: Kidnapped Siliguri CA rescued in Muzaffarpur, four held

PATNA: A 45-year-old chartered accountant (CA) Kishan Kumar Agarwal, who was kidnapped from Siliguri in West Bengal on Tuesday, was rescued from Motipur police station area in Muzaffarpur district late Saturday night. The kidnappers had demanded Rs5 crore as ransom from the victim’s family for his safe release.
The police arrested four kidnappers and recovered Rs47.74 lakh out of the Rs50 lakh they had received as ransom from the family for his release.Eleven mobile phones, one pistol and three live cartridges were also seized from their possession. An SUV in which the CA was being shifted to another safer place after receiving part of the ransom money somewhere in Gopalganj district, was also recovered during vehicle checking on the NH-28 in Muzaffarpur district.
Muzaffarpur SSP Jayant Kant said on Sunday that police swung into action following a tip-off that the abductors were planning to shift the captive to other hideouts. A police team led by City SP P K Mandal was assigned the task to check the vehicles. The police spotted the SUV and rescued the captive. Four persons in the SUV were also nabbed.
During preliminary investigation, the kidnappers revealed that Agarwal was kidnapped from Siliguri. The kidnappers kept on changing their locations and visited Bhagalpur, Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur districts to avoid police action. The ransom was demanded from the victim’s family twice using Agarwal’s mobile phone he was carrying with him at the time of kidnapping, the SSP said.
The kidnappers had contacted the family twice on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning and demanded Rs5 crore as ransom. A case was lodged with Siliguri police station after the family failed to trace Agarwal, who had left his home at Punjabi Para in Siliguri on a two-wheeler on Tuesday. While the victim’s family resides at Guru Nanak Sarni (ward number 13), his office is located at Hill Cart Road.
An inspector of Siliguri police, Sudip Chakravorty, who came to Muzaffarpur, said the kidnappers were keeping a close watch on Agarwal’s activities. On Tuesday morning, the kidnappers started following him soon after he returned from a local temple with his wife. He left home on a two-wheeler after receiving a call on his mobile phone. Since then he was traceless and his mobile was switched off.
Chakravorty said they contacted their counterparts in Muzaffarpur after the kidnappers’ location was traced in Gopalganj district. The members of the special cell and the district police were keeping a close surveillance on the movement of the kidnappers.
The arrested kidnappers were identified as Ranjeet Gimire of Siliguri, Robin Orang and Anwar Hussain from Assam and Faiz Ahmad of Gopalganj in Bihar. The police were verifying the arrested kidnappers’ connection with the local criminals, if any. “Raids are underway to arrest the other gang members,” Muzaffarpur City SP incharge Mandal said, adding that raids were also conducted in Gopalganj district.