Balasore: The jewellery shop owner who had been kidnapped from Soro block in Balasore district Thursday was rescued from Bhubaneswar Friday night.
After being rescued, the jewellery shop owner narrated the entire episode to the police.
Prahallad Behera, a resident of Atapur area who has a jewellery shop at Belda Chowk on Soro-Kupari road in the district, had received a call from one Sumanta Mallick of Dandaharipur March 18. Mallick told him that he would buy some gold ornaments from him.
After receiving the call, Prahallad took some gold ornaments weighing about 50 grams and left for Dandaharipur on a bike.
Back at home, the family members became worried after he did not return home at night. They had tried to contact him but found that his phone was switched off.
Unable to trace him out after a frantic search, the worried family members had lodged a missing report with the Soro police station late Thursday night.
While en route to Dandaharipur, he was called to Singakhunta and then was taken to a house and was beaten up by five youths. They had snatched away the gold ornaments from him.
The miscreants took him at knifepoint up to Jamujhadi. They left their bikes there and took a bus for Bhubaneswar. He was drugged during the journey.
It was when he regained consciousness that he could realise that he was being taken in an auto-rickshaw towards Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar. He gathered courage and managed to get himself freed from their clutches. Thereafter he ran straight towards the railway station.
Sensing that the police would have already started an operation to rescue Prahallad, they left the spot. After getting information, police rescued him from the railway station and brought him to Soro.
PNN