Alipurduar, June 8: The family members of a 22-year-old here have alleged that police are indifferent about arresting the abductor of the woman who has been missing for the past three weeks. The case is currently with the district enforcement branch (DEB).

On May 16, the woman, a resident of Chechakhata in Alipurduar, had stepped out of the house around 11am. Rana Dhali, her elder brother, lodged a missing person’s diary at 4pm the same day when she failed to return.

Within a few hours, news about her sister being sighted with Suroj Biswas, a petty trader, in the morning reached Rana. The brother then filed an FIR accusing Biswas who stays in the same locality.

“The next day, Suroj rang up one of our relatives from a PCO and demanded Rs 5 lakh for my sister’s release. I repeatedly told him that I want to talk to my sister but he did not allow me. He just gave a bank account number, which the police traced to one Jayanto Das of Pelling in Sikkim,” Rana said. “I met senior police officials of Alipurduar, but they have not done anything appreciable to find my sister.”

According to Rana, Suroj, a married man with an 8-year-old son, had tried his hands in several ventures earlier, but failed to prosper in any of them. “He has now demanded the ransom to clear the loans which he had borrowed from people in the area.”

S.R. Misra, the additional superintendent of police in Alipurduar, refuted the allegations levelled against his force. “We have referred the case to the DEB which is well-equipped to solve it. The accused will be arrested soon.”