Mumtaz Ansari, who was abducted by the rebels, on his way to Jamui after his release on Tuesday. He was abducted along with three other persons. Picture by Amit Kumar

Police in Jamui heaved a sigh of relief as forest guard Naresh Singh, who was abducted along with three others at Amjhari village under Sono police station by Maoist rebels on April 3, returned on Tuesday.

The rebels set the victims free in the Narganjo forest area on Monday around 11pm, inspector-general of police (Bhagalpur) A.K. Ambedkar.

Though the four persons were released at Narganjo, an unidentified motorcyclist picked up Naresh and dropped him at Amjhari around mid-night. From there, the forest guard was again picked up by another motorcyclist and was dropped near Durga Mandir at Jhajha township on Tuesday morning.

Jhajha police found Naresh and sent him to his native place at Ujhandi. The three others were brought to the clinic of a private doctor by sub-divisional police officer (Jhajha) Kundan Kumar.

“We hoped that the police would not have much difficulty in rescuing us because the place where they had kept us was barely 2km from Amjhari. But the delay in the police action is frustrating,” said Abul Ansari, the driver of a JCB machine, who was among the abducted four.

He added that though the Maoists initially used to beat them up, the rebels later behaved well with them. “They used to give us food and tea. But when they used to change their locations inside the forest, they made us walk blind folded,” Ansari said.

Recounting the day when he was abducted by the rebels, Ansari said: “About a dozen armed men reached the Tola Pahari area in the afternoon of April 3. We were busy working then. They started the conversation by asking us about the work. Then they asked us to accompany them.”

“When we refused to leave the JCB machine behind, they started beating us up mercilessly. After walking some distance, they blindfolded us. The same night we met another man in their captivity. He was Naresh, the forest guard,” Ansari added.

Naresh’s family members had received threats from the rebels demanding Rs 10 lakh as ransom. “We don’t have money. The senior forest officers are not taking the case seriously,” his wife, Nandini Devi, had earlier said.

Though Naresh returned to safety on Tuesday, it was not confirmed if any ransom was paid.

Jamui police had earlier confirmed the abduction of Naresh and Mumtaz Ansari, a resident of Naiyadih panchayat who had bought the JCB machine to cut a trench in the Belamba-Amjhari-Tola-Pahar area. It was only after the rebels released the four that the two other captives — Abul and his assistant, Mohammed Chotu — were identified.

In the meantime, forest department employees in Jamui have called off their proposed pen-down strike that they had called in protest against the abduction of the forest guard.

The abduction had triggered a sense of fear among the department personnel posted in Sono under Jhajha forest division of the district.