Hours after a government school teacher was kidnapped by six miscreants, Sundargarh police rescued the victim from the Tumla area of neighbouring Chhattisgarh in the wee hours of Tuesday, August 8. Following this, the police arrested three of the kidnappers from the neighbouring state.
The kidnappers were identified as Shankar Sahu and Ashok Apat, both of Tumla in Jashpur and Sanjay Pradhan of Gharghoda in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. The victim is Sarveswar Das, Headmaster of Brahmanmara government primary school at Kinjirkela in Balisankara block of Sundargarh, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Further, Sarveswar said he was returning to his rented house at Balisankara on his two-wheeler on Monday, August 7, afternoon when one of the kidnappers requested him for a lift. Near Brahmanmara bridge, the miscreant asked him to stop the bike and soon, more persons arrived on the spot.
Later, the headmaster was asked to get inside a white SUV at gunpoint. Sarveswar was taken to a forest where he was severely beaten up. After this, the headmaster's wife Prabina Mallick received a call from her husband's phone at around 6 pm. The kidnappers asked her to come with Rs 1 lakh ransom money.
When she expressed her inability to arrange the amount, the abductors put Sarveswar on the phone. On hearing her husband's terrified voice, she agreed to the demand. As instructed, Prabina went to a spot near the Chhattisgarh border and paid Rs 50,000 to the kidnappers at around 8.45 pm. And she was asked to arrange the rest Rs 50,000 by Tuesday morning.
Disclosing what happened next, Sundargarh Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Himanshu Behera said after receiving information, two police teams were formed to nab the abductors. Police launched a search in and around the forest area near Rosty village along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. After locating the SUV, police managed to nab three of the kidnappers.
Adding more, he said, the other three kidnappers were hiding nearby with the victim. When they got an inkling of the police action, they fled taking advantage of it. The victim too managed to escape. At around 2 am, police found the victim who had taken shelter inside a house at Tumla on the Chhattisgarh side of the border, Behera added.
Sundargarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Pratush Diwaker said a country-made pistol with two live bullets and Rs 50,000 ransom money were seized from the possession of the three kidnappers. Besides, the four-wheeler used in the crime and the victim's motorcycle were recovered. Efforts are underway to nab the remaining three abductors, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
