Patna: A joint team of the Rohtas and Muzaffarpur police rescued a kidnapped Madhya Pradesh businessman after the arrest of five kidnappers on Saturday. The police also recovered Rs 40 lakh, which the kidnappers had received as ransom for his safe release.

Sant Bahadur Singh, (35), a resident of Tenuha under the jurisdiction of Tenuha Kotwali police station in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, was kidnapped from Madhya Pradesh on July 23 this year and confined in the house of a jailed gangster Khalid Ansari at Manohar Chhapra village in Muzaffarpur district.

Rohtas SP Satyaveer Singh said he received information from his counterparts in Sidhi on Saturday that the ransom would be paid to the kidnappers somewhere in Rohtas. The members of the inter-state gang were travelling by the Howrah-Mumbai Express to receive the ransom money.

"I immediately set up a special investigation team and put the cops attached to the district intelligence unit on alert. A team was keeping a close watch on the movement of the members of the gang. At a place near Kudra, the members of the gang asked the victim's relatives to throw the bag containing money. Accordingly the bag was thrown at the place," Satyaveer said.

Within a few minutes, two youths riding a motorbike reached the spot and picked up the bag. Soon a vehicle checking drive was launched in the district leading to the arrest of Balinder Kumar, a resident of Madanpur in Aurangabad and Narayan Lohar of Indore (MP). A country-made pistol and Rs 40 lakh cash were seized from their possession, the SP told The Telegraph.

A raid was conducted at the house of Khalid Ansari at Manohar Chhapra village under the jurisdiction of Baruraj police station in Muzaffarpur from where the kidnapped trader was recovered safely. Three kidnappers - Selam Raza, a resident of Baruraj in Muzaffarpur, Ankit Kumar and Ajit Kumar Singh, both residents of Katarisarai in Nalanda - were arrested from there.