Patna: The rescue of a seven-year-old boy, kidnapped in Uttar Pradesh, from Bihar's West Champaran district has sparked fears of a return of the heyday of kidnapping gangs in the Nepal-border region.

An Uttar Pradesh police team rescued Ayush Nigam from Valmikinagar in West Champaran, around 290km north-west of Patna, on Sunday and arrested four of his kidnappers. Ayush was abducted from Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh on January 11. The kidnappers had demanded Rs 1 crore as ransom from his family.

The incident has reminded residents and police of an era a decade ago when kidnappers would use the dense forest cover and sugarcane fields of the Bihar-Nepal border region to hide hostages.

"The re-emergence of such a trend after more than a decade is a matter of grave concern for the police," said a senior officer. "Not only are kidnapping for ransom cases being reported frequently in the state but also remote areas are being used for keeping hostages."

The officer said most of the kingpins of kidnappers' gangs were out of jail. A Gaya businessman was kidnapped a couple of days ago. Earlier, a Delhi police team had recovered a kidnapped girl from Nalanda district.

Last year, till October, 38 cases of kidnapping for ransom were lodged. A meeting with senior officers was held at the police headquarters last month to review cases related to kidnapping for ransom.

The kingpin of Ayush's kidnappers, Niraj Shrestha, was arrested from Bhaisalotan in Nepal.

He was living in Ayush's house as a tenant for the past six months.

Toothibari police station house officer (SHO) B.N. Singh said Niraj had hatched the conspiracy to kidnap Ayush, son of a businessman, with the help of the boy's relatives Rajesh Nigam and Sonu Nigam, and that the boy was kept in the Valmikinagar residence of Raghav Yadhav. Sonu, Raghav, Rajesh and Niraj have been arrested.

Maharajganj SP R.P. Singh said the police recovered the Rs 4 lakh that was handed over to the kidnappers as first instalment of the ransom.