Silchar, Dec. 5: The managing director of the Gamaria rubber plantation at Karimganj district in south Assam, Chanchal Modak, was abducted by unidentified men around 6 pm yesterday.

Modak, 49, was whisked off from his bungalow, located in a forest near Ramkrishnanagar town, about 75 km from Karimganj town.

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

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

The police said the a six-member gang of kidnappers had arrived at Modak’s bungalow last evening in a Tata Sumo. They initially 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.

Ruma Modak, his octogenarian mother, added that one of the men suddenly fished out a dagger, which he held to Modak’s belly. The abductors then dragged him out to the Sumo and drove off.

All police stations in Karimganj and Hailakandi districts have been put on alert following this incident. The kidnapping comes in the wake of the abduction of one primary school teacher named Mrinal Chakravarty last June, from his house at Nagra under Karimganj district’s Patherkandi block.

The extremists belonging to the Reang tribe subsequently killed Chakravarty, when the CRPF stormed their hideout.

However, Saloi, on the basis of initial information, ruled out the possibility of the involvement of any militant gang operating in Karimganj.