Patna: A chicken trader was allegedly kidnapped in Patna after being honey-trapped. The kidnappers chopped one of his fingers and poured acid on his body to torture him, an official said.

Patna police managed to rescue the victim who has been identified as Pritam Kumar on Tuesday. The victim is currently admitted to a private hospital.

According to the police, the kidnappers first honey-trapped Pritam Kumar and then kidnapped him and took him to a room in Jaganpura locality in the city and tortured him.

“As per the plan, the girl who honey-trapped the victim had called him to meet at the eco-park located near Bihar Vidhan Sabha. When he reached Eco Park, four persons kidnapped him at gunpoint and dragged him inside the car. The accused sped away from the area and took him to a room in Jaganpura,” said an official of Sachiwalay police station.

During the investigation, it was found that Pritam had borrowed money to the tune of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from four persons including Kaushal Kumar, Rahul Kumar, and two others in the name of providing jobs in a transport company. Pritam always met them in Vishweswarayya Bhawan located near Hartali More. As he was unable to provide jobs to them, they demanded the money back.

Kaushal and others then decided to kidnap him and extort money from his family. As per the plan, they asked a girl to befriend Pritam. The girl contacted him on the phone and they started interacting with each other. After a couple of months of chatting, that girl asked Pritam to meet him. She asked him to come to the Eco park for a first date. When he reached the meeting point, Kaushal, Rahul, and two others took him at the gunpoint and dragged him inside the car, and successfully executed the plan of kidnapping. Kaushal, Rahul, and two others then took Pritam to the room and demanded to return the money.

“The first ransom call was made on Sunday evening, a few hours after his kidnapping. Following that, we went to the Rupaspur police station to register the FIR. As the crime scene was Eco Park, we went to Sachiwalay police station and registered the FIR against four suspects,” said a family member of Pritam.

“As the matter was very serious, we immediately put the phone number on technical surveillance and traced it at Jaganpura. We raided the house and rescued the victim Pritam. The accused probably realized about the raid and they fled from the spot. A hunt has been launched to arrest them,” said the SHO of Sachiwalay police station.