Agartala: Four employees of the Tripura Grameen Bank (TGB) were allegedly kidnapped when they were on their way home from office on Friday night.

Superintendent of police (control) Pradip Dey on Saturday said a search and rescue operation has been launched to find the missing bankers.

"Four Grameen Bank personnel, including TGB's Taidu branch manager Tanmoy Bhattacharjee, assistant managers Raktim Bhowmik, Sujit Dey and Subrata Debbarma went missing on Friday night," Dey said.

Taidu is a village in Amarpur sub-division of Gomati district, nearly 65km from Agartala.

After the bankers failed to turn up at their respective homes, a complaint was filed at Taidu police station on Saturday morning.

Local sources at Taidu said a ransom of Rs 40 lakh was demanded for the release of the kidnapped bankers.

Police declined to confirm the ransom claim.

Bank officials have been targeted in the Northeast earlier too. Suspected militants abducted a branch manager of the State Bank of India three years ago in Meghalaya's South West Garo Hills district.

The official, Arvind Kumar, was travelling from Guwahati when his vehicle was stopped by armed men.