Abducted Tripura bank officials return home

From a correspondent

Agartala, Dec 1: Four Tripura Gramin Bank officials feared abducted safely returned home on Friday though the mystery around their disappearance a week ago remains. K V Srijesh, IG (law & order), told the reporters that they have returned safely but very tired to divulge anything.

“We will not disclose anything at the moment about their return. The matter is under investigation. Police is trying to get details from each of these officials,” the police official said.

Subrata Debbarma, who was abducted, said: “We were blindfolded and kept in an isolated place possibly between Ompi and Gandachera. Last night we were released on a hill top and they gave us direction on how to reach the Taidu-Teliamura road.”

He said the four bank officials — kidpped last Friday – are fine.

The BJP state unit had threatened to gherao Chief Minister Manik Sarkar’s official residence if the officials were not rescued immediately. The party later withdrew the gherao threat.

Earlier, police said bank’s Taidu Branch Mager Tanumoy Bhattacharjee, 30, Sujit Chandra Dey, 28, Raktim Bhowmik, 31 and Subrata Debbarma, 32 were abducted on November 24 night by miscreants while returning by their vehicles to Agartala through Teliamura.

Their car and motorcycle were found in nearby districts on November 26.

Families of these officials had told the media that unidentified persons called up and demanded Rs 20 lakh each for their release.