Jamshedpur, February 22 Five more people were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of the son of an industrialist in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, police said on Sunday.
Kairav Gandhi (24) was kidnapped on January 13. He was rescued after a fortnight from the Hazaribag district, they said.
The kidnapping had led to widespread outrage in the state, with the opposition questioning the law and order situation under the JMM-led Hemant Soren government.
Earlier, six people had been apprehended in connection with the kidnapping.
East Singhbhum SSP Piyush Pandey said that five more people were arrested from Ludhiana in Punjab, Kolkata, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and Shekhpura in Bihar.
While Amrinder Singh alias Kartar Singh and Manpreet Singh Sekho were arrested from Ludhiana, Gurdeep Sher Singh was apprehended from Kolkata, Santosh Kumar from Ghaziabad, and Rajkaran Yadav from Shekhpura, he said.
Thanking the police forces of those states for their assistance, Pandey said that raids were conducted based on human and technical intelligence, and the arrests were made.
The SUV used in the kidnapping was also recovered, he said.
The kidnappers were in police uniforms and had taken Kairav to Chandil in the Seraikela-Kharswan district, he added.
The SSP said that the accused persons had then taken the victim to Gaya district in Bihar via Ranchi.
Kairav, the son of Jamshedpur-based industrialist Devang Gandhi, was rescued on January 27. Amid constant police raids, the accused persons were planning to shift him to another place, officials said.
Accordingly, police teams were alerted and deployed on the routes likely to have been used by the kidnappers. Under mounting pressure, the kidnappers set him free on the road and fled.