4 bank officials kidnapped in Tripura

AGARTALA: Four employees of Tripura Gramin Bank were kidnapped by unknown persons from southwestern Tripura, police said here on Saturday.

The miscreants kidnapped the four Tripura Gramin Bank oficials, including branch manager Tanumoy Bhattacharjee, 30, while they were returning to Agartala in a vehicle on Friday night, southern Tripura’s Gomati district police chief Bijoy Debbarma told IANS over phone.

He said police not sure whether they were abducted by armed miscreants or any terrorist group.

Bhattacharjee was driving his car and Sujit Chandra Dey, 28 and Raktim Bhowmik, 31, were in the car. Another bank oficial Subrata Debbarma, 32, was driving his bike along with the vehicle. “The car and the bike were also remain untraced,” the police oficial said.

“The exact location from where the bank oficials were kidnapped is not yet known,” Bijoy Debbarma said.

Meanwhile, families of the captives said an unidentiied person called them up and demanded Rs 20 lakh each for release of the bank employees.

Troopers of Tripura State Riles and other Security forces led by senior police oficials launched a massive combing operations on Friday night in Khowai, Dhalai and Gomati districts to rescue the bank employees.

Police oficials said there was not a single extremist related incident in Tripura since 2015.

Police and intelligence oficials had earlier apprehended that terrorist activities might resurface in the state ahead of the crucial assembly elections in February 2018.