Patna: A businessman was allegedly abducted in Gaya district on Tuesday night and the cops are not ruling out the involvement of a professional kidnapping gang.

Police said armed men picked up Vinod Kumar Sah, 50, a fodder-cum-paddy dealer, when he was returning to his Sherghati residence from his shop at Piparghatti under the jurisdiction of Dobhi police station in Gaya district, around 110 km south of Patna.

The cops found Sah's motorcycle abandoned on the Dobhi-Sherghati road on Wednesday morning. His slippers and some other articles belonging to him were also recovered from the spot.

Gaya senior superintendent of police (SSP) Garima Malik said a kidnapping case has been lodged with the Sherghati police station as Sah's family has been abducted. The family has not received any ransom call so far.

SSP Malik said a special investigation team (SIT) headed by the Gaya city superintendent of police has been constituted to crack the case at the earliest. "We hope that the case will be solved soon," she said, adding that the SIT raided a few places in Gaya district to trace Sah and his kidnappers.

The SIT procured the call detail record of Sah's mobile phone and conducted raids on suspected criminal hideouts. The investigating officers didn't rule out the involvement of professional gang in the kidnapping, the first such case reported in the district this year.

Sherghati sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Upendra Prasad said Sah's family shifted to Sherghati, a sub-divisional town, about a decade ago from Pipargatti. "The family still has its traditional business there," he added.

A local resident considered close to Sah said that Sah's wife fell ill after she came to know about the kidnapping. She is under the observation of a team of doctors at Sherghati, around 50km from the Gaya district headquarters, the resident said.