The RIMS engineers. (PTI)

Imphal, Dec. 12: The two employees of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), who were abducted on Tuesday, turned up at the institute this morning saying they had “escaped” from the clutches of their abductors.

Police, however, are refusing to buy the “escape” story.

Assistant engineer Ng. Robindro and supervisor Y. Sujeet of the engineering cell of the institute were allegedly abducted by activists of the Kangleipak Communist Party (Ibungo Ngangom), triggering a crisis of sorts at the state’s largest hospital.

The outfit had claimed responsibility for the abduction yesterday and said that it had “interrogated” the duo and threatened to execute them in case they were found guilty of corruption.

To counter the charges, the institute yesterday made public a demand letter from the outfit to the director, asking for a sum of Rs 2 crore.

The institute had set 6pm yesterday as the deadline for their safe release and announced an indefinite closure of the hospital from 8am today if the two were not freed.

The institute functioned normally today in view of the duo turning up this morning.

However, the “escape” story failed to convince both the police interrogators and senior RIMS officials.

“We have questioned them for five hours and will be interrogating them further. We are also looking into the conspiracy angle. If they had faked the abduction, the law will take its natural course. If found innocent, they will be handed over to the families,” officer-in-charge of Porompat station Y. Chandramani said.

The duo told the superintendent of the institute Y. Mohen Singh and the police that they rode a scooter to meet the outfit’s leader Ibungo Ngangom on Tuesday afternoon after he called them to discuss the construction work at the institute.

The two neither went home on reaching Imphal at 11pm nor did they inform the police about their “escape”. However, they informed their families and friends.

“We were looking for them the whole night. Robindro’s family informed us about their escape, but could not give any clue about their whereabouts,” the officer-in-charge said. The two said the abductors did not say anything to them, except ask them to stay on until an agreement was arrived at between the group and the institute. They also said the abductors did not ask them any questions on corruption.

The police said there were various “flaws” in their story, adding that they would look into them.