Irfan Alam

Patna, May 13: Irfan Alam, the chairman-cum-managing director of Samman Foundation invited to a dinner last year by US President Barack Obama, was arrested today on the charges of abducting, wrongfully confining and assaulting a software engineer.

Police said Alam with his three associates were arrested from the State Bank Colony under Shastrinagar police station for assaulting and confining the engineer, Navendra alias Navendu, at the office of Samman Foundation. Irfan runs the non-governmental organisation.

Patna senior superintendent of police Alok Kumar said a police team rescued Navendu after his father complained of kidnapping of his son allegedly by Irfan and his associates. Prime facie dispute over payment appeared to be the reason behind the incident, he added.

Irfan’s three associates have been identified as Govind Jha, Yuvraj and Rohit alias Raj Kumar.

Irfan denied the charge of abduction and said that Navendu had failed to pay back his money, which he had given him for some official work about a year back.

Sources said Irfan had called Navendu to his Khajpura office today. When Navendu reached there, Irfan and his men allegedly snatched his cellphone and laptop, confined him to a room and thrashed him black and blue.

Irfan allegedly misbehaved with an assistant superintendent of police when the latter reached his office to enquire about the whereabouts of the victim.

Navendu’s father told the police that he suspected foul play when his son did not return home till 4.30pm. While leaving home around 1.30pm, Navendu had told his family members that he was going to Irfan’s office

The software engineer told the police that the motive of the abductors was to eliminate him.

“I was so terrified that I could not utter a word when the police opened the room in which I was confined,” Navendu said.

Earlier, Obama had invited Irfan for dinner for his work with rickshaw-pullers. The IIM Ahmedabad graduate, who redesigned and smartened up rickshaws and helped boost the pullers’ earnings and dignity, was one of 79 “unique” entrepreneurs from across the world Obama invited to an “entrepreneurship summit” in Washington in 2010.

What Irfan did was design a “smart” rickshaw with shelves that can stock mineral water, soft drinks, newspapers and other “small items of big necessity” that the pullers could sell to their customers, adding to their income.