A 40-year-old man was arrested on Monday night on charges of kidnapping the teenaged daughter of his friend.

Police said Ramnarayan Shaw, who lives on Strand Road, forcibly took 13-year-old Sarita Kumari Singh to a house near Shibpur Botanical Garden, from where she fled.

Shaw, a van-puller, used to borrow cycle-vans from Sarita’s father Manoj, said an officer. “He had become almost a member of the Singh family”.

On Monday evening, Shaw went to the Singhs’ house on Strand Road and asked Sarita’s parents to let her accompany him to a “relative’s house” in Shibpur. After the parents gave their consent, Shaw hailed a taxi and asked the driver to head for Botanical Garden.

Sarita alleged that once the taxi started moving, Shaw tied her hands and feet with a nylon rope and asked her not to shout.

“Shaw took the girl to a house at 1/2 Botanical Garden Road. As he untied Sarita’s hands and legs, she ran out and started shouting in front of Gate No. 1 of Botanical Garden,” the officer said.

She narrated her plight to some residents who had gathered on the spot and gave them her father’s phone number. They immediately called Manoj. Shaw, too, reached the spot by that time. The residents caught hold of him after Sarita identified him as her abductor.

The owner of 1/2 Botanical Garden Road admitted that the girl was brought to her house but denied that she knew Shaw.