Imphal, March 7: A Calcutta-based chartered accountant was rescued and five persons, including one of his associates, were arrested from an Imphal hotel during a raid on Friday night.

A police team, led by Imphal West district superintendent S. Ibocha Singh, rescued Ram Narayan Singh, proprietor of the Calcutta-based chartered accountancy firm — SRN Singh Company — from Hotel Anand.

The chartered accountant, who arrived in Imphal on March 1 on a business trip, was abducted for ransom on the same day from Lamphel. The kidnapping was masterminded by his business associate, Sourav Deb, the police said. Sourav is the head of the company’s Imphal branch.

Along with Sourav, two others, identified as Sajal Abhishek Rai and Ganesh Gusung, were arrested during the raid. Two others, Mutum Vikramjit Singh, an intern of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal, and Sagolshem Bhupen, both residents of Imphal, were also taken into custody in connection with the abduction. Another accomplice Noaroibam Doren, from Imphal, is absconding.

The police said Singh, along with Gusung and Sourav, was abducted by Doren and Bhupen, who posed as members of an underground organisation, while he was on his way to the office of Manipur AIDS Control Society in Lamphel at 3 pm in a car.

They took the trio through different routes before locking them up inside a rented room at the gate of the RIMS later in the night. The police said the kidnappers demanded Rs 1 crore from the chartered accountant for his release. Ram Narayan negotiated with the kidnappers and agreed to pay Rs 32 lakh.

The next morning, Vikramjit Singh, who acted as the commander of a militant group shifted Ram Narayan, Sourav and Ganesh to Hotel Anand. Ram Narayan sent Sourav to Calcutta the same day to fetch the money.

The SP said on being informed that a non-Manipuri was being held hostage in the hotel, he led a team to conduct the raid. Sourav and Ganesh at first pleaded that they did not know the kidnappers. But they broke down during interrogation, he said.

While Bhupen was picked up last night from his house, Vikramjit Singh was arrested today. The car in which the chartered accountant was abducted was also seized. The car is owned by Doren, who is absconding.