Patna: Payment of compensation for land acquired by the state proved costly for Rohtas-based businessman Dudheshwar Prasad Sah, who was rescued by a police team from his kidnappers in the district, around 165km southwest of Patna, on Tuesday.

Deputy inspector-general (Shahabad range) Mohammad Rahman said the gang, headed by murder convict Ashok Sah alias Ashok Master, had no police case against him.

"They are first-timers," Rahman said, adding that the kidnappers had come to know about a payment of Rs 10 crore made to the Sah family as compensation of land that has been acquired by the government.

Sah's land was acquired for the construction of Daudnagar-Nasariganj bridge connecting Dehri-on-Sone to Aurangabad. The family had received the payment only a few months back, a source in the district investigation unit of the Rohtas police said.

Criminals from Nasariganj had abducted Sah, 55, for ransom when he had gone for a morning walk on October 11. The police seized Rs 28.9 lakh cash, three pistols, eight cartridges, four mobile phones and an SUV from the possession of seven arrested persons.

Rahman said the abductors had pressured the trader's family to pay the ransom for the release of Sah, a grocery wholesaler. Out of the Rs 28.9 lakh cash recovered from the abductors, Rs 27 lakh was realised as ransom from the trader's family, he added.

The DIG said acting on a tip off, a special investigation team headed by Rohtas superintendent Manavjeet Singh Dhillon conducted a raid at Pipradih village under the jurisdiction of Rohtas police station on Tuesday and recovered the captive. Seven members of the gang, including the kingpin, Ashok Sah, were nabbed from the hideouts of the kidnappers.

Sources close to the family said Rs 31 lakh was paid to the kidnappers on Monday night. The ransom was handed over to two motorbike-borne youths near Dehri-on-Sone railway station from where they reached Pipradih, the spot where the victim was confined in a house. The motorbike and an SUV, which were used in the crime, were also seized.

Sah's family said the trader was taken to Charachandi on National Highway-2 after being abducted from Nasariganj. Thereafter the kidnappers took him to Pipradih, a Maoist hotbed, where he was provided food and medicines.

"The abductors didn't torture him during the six-day captivity. The captors served him roti, dal and bhujia. One day, he was served rice, pulses and vegetables as he was a diabetic," a relative said.