Abducted man rescued from Balasore; 3 held

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Bhubaneswar: The twin city Commissionerate Police rescued a man who had been abducted from Mancheswar area here June 20 night, and arrested three of his kidnappers, including the mastermind, from Balasore’s Rupsa late Tuesday night, a senior Mancheswar police official said Wednesday.
The accused — Sheikh Minaz Quadri alias Bulu of Soelpur under Balasore Town police limits and Sheikh Imran and Sheikh Raja of the same locality who helped Bulu kidnap Bikram Keshari Bal — have been sent to judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected by a local court here, Mancheswar inspector in-charge (IIC) Jatindranath Sethy said.
According to Sethy, Bal, who hails from Kendrapara’s Rajkanika, has been residing in Mancheswar area and heads a contracting firm here. Prime accused Bulu worked as a marble mason in Bal’s firm and also used to supply labourers to him.
“It was during the last Eid when Bulu asked Bal to clear off his pending dues. Soon the duo picked up a fight and a mountain was made out of a molehill. Bulu, along with other accused, hatched a conspiracy to abduct Bal in an attempt to collect the amount in form of ransom,” the official said.
Sethy said Bal was on his way home after the day’s work when Bulu and his two aides abducted him June 20. “One of the accused managed to ride Bal’s motorcycle, while the others overpowered Bal and forced him into a car and brought him to Balasore. Later, the accused called up Bal’s family and demanded `5 lakh ransom to release him. The following day, Bal’s brother Rakesh approached us (police) following which a case was registered and a probe began,” the IIC said.
Police got the leads after tracing the location of the phone from which the ransom call was made. “After tracking the phone’s location, a team of Mancheswar police, in coordination with its Balasore counterpart, raided the location in Rupsa and rescued the victim besides arresting the accused. Bal’s motorcycle and five mobile phones have been recovered from them,” Sethy said.