Silchar, Dec. 5: A Salt Lake man who headed a rubber plantation in south Assam’s Karimganj district was abducted last evening.

Chanchal Modak, 49, was whisked away from his bungalow, located in a forest near Ramkrishnanagar, about 75 km from Karimganj town, by unidentified men around 6 pm. Modak, 49, was the managing director of Gamaria rubber plantation.

Superintendent of police Pradip Chandra Saloi today said he was leading a joint force of police and the CRPF on a search operation in the nearby forests to trace the planter. Modak, third of four brothers, was one of the pioneers of rubber cultivation in south Assam in the early eighties.

Saloi added that the abduction may not be the handiwork of militants, as initial reports had indicated that personal enmity between the planter and some local residents had led to the incident.

The police said a six-member gang of kidnappers had arrived at Modak’s bungalow last evening in a Tata Sumo. They told one of the servants that they were keen on opening a rubber plantation nearby and wanted to discuss their project with Modak, who was an expert in the field.

The executive’s octogenarian mother, Ruma Modak, said one of the men suddenly pulled out a dagger. The abductors then dragged Modak out to the Sumo and drove off.

Not many people were around at the bungalow when the incident took place.

“Usually, the bungalow teems with people but, strangely, there was no one around when they took him away. The guard called him out and told him that some men were waiting outside to meet him. The men even called him ‘dada’. Minutes later, the guard, Raju, came screaming that the youths had taken him away,” recalled Ankita, Modak’s niece-in-law. “We have not yet received any telephone calls. His brothers are coming tomorrow,” she added.

Modak’s brothers live in their DB Block house in Salt Lake.

Family members claimed Modak, a Rotarian, was a very popular man in Ramkrishnanagar town and was in the process of setting up a school for the handicapped.

The kidnapping comes in the wake of the abduction of a primary schoolteacher, Mrinal Chakravarty, last June from his house at Nagra in Karimganj district’s Patherkandi block.

The militants belonging to the Reang tribe later killed Chakravarty when the CRPF stormed their hideout.