Dumka/Ranchi, April 19: The car being driven by the missing executive engineer, Yamuna Prasad Lakhiramka, has been found abandoned in Deoghar, next to a cinema.

However, in spite of raids conducted by police in both Bihar and Jharkhand, neither the engineer nor his driver, Surendra Sharma, have been traced. Both left Godda for Deoghar, around 70 km away, on Sunday evening but never reached home.

Nor was there any trace of the Jamshedpur-based industrialist, Ajay Singh, and his driver, who have now been missing for a week and a half. Their car, too, had been found abandoned on the Jamshedpur-Ranchi highway. The Godda police said they were investigating all possibilities and do not rule out that the abductors abandoned the engineer?s car in Deoghar to mislead the investigators. On the other hand, they cannot also rule out the possibility that the engineer was kidnapped after he reached Deoghar.

For the time being, however, they are sticking to the theory that the duo was abducted on the Godda-Deoghar highway with long and deserted stretches. No eyewitness has come forward so far to provide any clue. Although police refused to confirm it, sources close to the two families said ransom calls have been received, indicating that both the businessman and the engineer were abducted for ransom. Wildly speculative figures put the ransom demanded between Rs 10 lakh and a couple of crores.

Lakhiramka called home from Godda before leaving and hit the highway after filling up fuel at a petrol pump owned by BJP leader Manohar Tekriwal. Thereafter, his movement remains a mystery. His cellphone, too, has been switched off. The 57-year old engineer, originally hailing from Jamtara, has lived in Deoghat since 1980 and has been travelling between Godda and Deoghar for decades.

Lakhiramka hails from an influential business family of Santhal Pargana and is known to have close relations with several politicians. A section of the engineers in Godda and Deoghar claimed that of late he had fallen foul of a group of contractors and blamed his abduction on the bitter rivalry between different political factions. The police, however, rejected any such possibility.