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Updated: Jul 08, 2019 15:53 IST

The alleged mastermind behind the abduction of a 26-year-old businessman from West Bengal has been arrested from Bihar’s Bhojpur district, police said on Monday.

The arrest of Abhishek Choudhary alias Guddu has raised questions whether Bihar, where abductions of businessmen, doctors, contractors and others was once rampant, has now become a safe hideout for interstate criminals.

A senior Bihar police official said that Choudhary was arrested from his house in Birampur under Koilwar police station of Bhojpur. The gang has eight to ten members — four from Bhojpur and remaining from the adjoining districts of Patna.

An investigating officer said that Choudhary’s girlfriend was also picked up for interrogation.

Tejpal Singh, the owner of Asansol Alloys Private Limited, was abducted from Nakra Jharia under Salanpur police station of Asansol on April 17. Singh’s Fortuner SUV was found in Mugma in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad. He was released near Barhi in Jharkhand on May 19 after his family paid a ransom of Rs 2.75 crore to the kidnappers.

According to the police, Choudhary said during interrogation that the young industrialist was brought to Patna in a separate vehicle and held captive in a flat under SK Puri police station area of the Bihar capital. He was later shifted to Bhojpur district.

There have been several such abductions of businessmen from several states who were brought to Bihar.

Gujarat-based textile magnate Sohail Hingora abducted on October 29, 2013, from Dhrampur village in Daman. Sohail was brought to Bihar by road, a distance of 2,000km, as his abductors crossed hundreds of police barriers on the way. Sohail’s father Hanif Hingora claimed to have paid Rs 25 crore as a ransom to a Bihar politician at a place 22km away from the Mahatma Gandhi Setu across the Ganga for his son’s safe release.

On February 15, 2019, another gang from Bihar abducted 47-year-old Manoj Khandelwal, of the family that owns the Kolkata-based Paras Pan Masala company, from outside his Girish Park office in the heart of north Kolkata. He was taken more than 220km away from the city before the abductors were intercepted at a police check post barely 2.5km from the Bengal-Jharkhand border.