Guwahati, May 29 : A day after Pradip Roy, the boss of an engineering firm, was abducted from Kokrajhar, a man called up his Calcutta residence and told his wife in broken Bengali to keep Rs 10 crore ready for his release.
The managing director of the Calcutta-based Pradip Structural and Development Pvt Ltd was abducted with three other employees of the firm and their driver near Salakati in Kokrajhar yesterday morning when they were on their way to a National Thermal Power Corporation project site.
While the four others were released at Rangia last evening, Roy was taken to an undisclosed destination.
Roy’s family, living at Nagerbazar in Calcutta said they received the ransom call around 2pm today.
The caller said Roy would be released as soon as they received the money and that he would call again later.
Roy’s wife, Aparna, answered the call.
“When we wanted to speak to him (Roy), the caller said that wouldn’t be possible as he was ‘far away’. Assuring us that Roy was well, the caller dropped broad hints that it would not be ‘fine’ if the money was not paid. Indirectly, they did threaten us,” said Roy’s uncle, Suraranjan.
Aparna, who had not been keeping well, has become hysterical after receiving the call.
The marriage of the couple’s only daughter is scheduled for July. Their son studies in Class X.
Suraranjan said the caller spoke enough Bengali to convey what he wanted.
“From where will we bring Rs 10 crore?” Suraranjan asked, breaking down.
Kokrajhar superintendent of police, P.K. Dutta, said efforts were on to trace Roy.
Tarun Chatterjee, site-in-charge for the firm at Salakati, who was also taken away along with Roy, narrated the incident today.
“We were on our way to our project site when an Alto car braked in front of us, forcing our driver to stop. Two persons got out of the vehicle and held guns to Roy’s head and our driver, forcing them out and into their car,” he said.
A person got into the driver’s seat, while two others got into the rear seat of the car that Roy and the others were travelling in. “They were speaking in Bodo,” he said.
On reaching Rangia, the abductors told him and the others that they were free to return but they were keeping Roy with them and would establish contact later.
