TURA: A project engineer of the National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC) who was kidnapped at gunpoint from Rongara in south Garo Hills, close to the international border with Bangladesh, was released unharmed on the outskirts of Baghmara town on Thursday night.
The engineer, A K Srivastava, who was kidnapped in the dead of night from Rongara village on November 22 night by half a dozen armed men was released in an isolated stretch of the border some distance from the church mission in Baghmara at around 8:30 pm.
“He is safe and in our custody. He is also traumatized by the events that took place,” revealed district SP Lakador Syiem.
While the police chief has denied having any knowledge about payment of ransom, highly placed police sources have revealed to The Shillong Times that money did change hands for the engineer’s safe return.
“Initially the group behind the abduction had demanded Rs 50 lakh but it was gradually scaled down. We believe that the company and the family may have paid ransom for his release,” said a top police source while indicating that the exchange took place on the same day as the release somewhere in the border area itself.
It has also been revealed that the kidnappers group transported Srivastava into Bangladesh shortly after he was kidnapped. “All along he was kept inside a house of a border village just across the border not far from Rongara. He was well looked after and given timely meals and medicines. The group appears to have been well prepared,” said another police source.
The move by the kidnappers to cross over into Bangladesh with their captive had severely hampered a possible rescue attempt of the engineer who was supervising the construction of flood lighting of the border fencing inside India. The engineer was sleeping in a rented house in Rongara when armed men entered the NBCC complex and threatened the junior staff to identify his place of dwelling.
The manner in which the armed men carried out the operation just 200 meters approximately from the BSF post at Rongara and crossed the international border with their victim had led many to question the security vigil of the BSF along the border.
LAEF prime accused in company official’s kidnap: SP
A day after a company official working on the National Highway in East Garo Hills was kidnapped from Songsak Village police have confirmed the involvement of the Liberation of A’chik Elite Force (LAEF), a group known to be responsible for a number of extortion and kidnapping cases in the region.
“We know it is the handiwork of the LAEF. We are yet to rescue the kidnapped official, however we have begun operations at all probable locations and hope to rescue him soon,” East Garo Hills Superintendent of Police (SP), Davies Nestell R Marak said.