BHUBANESWAR: The Commissionerate Police on Tuesday arrested four persons including two students of a private university for allegedly kidnapping a fourth-year BSc nursing student from the same institution.
Police said the victim, 22-year-old Biswajit Pradhan, was rescued within two hours of his abduction. The accused are Sandeep Kumar Rout (21) and Ritik Muduli (22), both BPharma students of the university, and Subham Pradhan (20) of Dumduma and Biswas Nayak (24) of Bharatpur.
Bharatpur police said they received information about Pradhan’s abduction from the college campus at around 1 pm. The accused allegedly demanded a ransom of Rs 50,000 for his release.
The matter was immediately informed to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Bhubaneswar and a special team comprising officers from Bharatpur police station, the special squad and technical staff of Commissionerate Police was constituted to trace the victim and apprehend the accused.
The movements of both the victim and accused were tracked using advanced technical support, call detail record analysis and CCTV footage collected from the campus and surrounding areas.
Acting on technical leads, police conducted a raid at a rented house located near the Ayurvedic College area in the city and rescued Pradhan unharmed. The accused were nabbed from the spot and the entire ransom amount of Rs 50,000 besides the vehicle used in commission of the crime, a knife, a kitchen utensil and four mobile phones were seized from them.
The rescued student was provided immediate medical assistance and his statement was recorded by investigators. A case was registered in this connection and further investigation is underway to ascertain whether a larger conspiracy was involved, police said.