K Ganesh Rao (right) with his parents in Berhampur on Sunday. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, April 29: Police rescued K. Ganesh Rao, the abducted son of a builder, unhurt from a hill near Tamana village, 12km from here, early this morning after three days of captivity.

“Though we have rescued Ganesh after three days, we are unable to nab his kidnappers,” Balugaon sub-divisional police officer P.K. Rout told reporters at Town police station here this evening.

“We reached the spot by tracking the kidnappers’ mobile phone calls. When we took position in the jungle to ambush the kidnappers, they could perhaps sense the danger and let off Ganesh,” said Routray.

The police officer said: “After being set free by the abductors, Ganesh walked towards us in the darkness.”

The BBA student of Khallikote College was kidnapped on his way to Salia Dam in the Banpur police station area in Khurda district on April 26.

Earlier on April 2, some goons detained Ganesh near Ramlingam Tank in the city, demanding Rs 20 lakh from his father K. Mohan Rao.

“We suspect that the same group is involved in this kidnapping as well. We are investigating this angle,” said a senior police officer associated with the search operation.

Ganesh is the eldest son of Rao, a builder residing at Netta Sahi here.

Ganesh’s friends — Y. Sovan Kumar of Gajapati Nagar, Sumeet Agrawal of Netta Sahi and T. Ayappa Suman of Park Street — were accompanying him to Salia Dam for picnic. However, the kidnappers had let them off.

Suman told the investigating officials that the four friends had started from Berhampur for Salia Dam on two motorbikes at 11am on April 26. “When we were filling up petrol at Pokharibandha Petrol Pump near Jagannathpur Square, I noticed a few people, who had been following us on two motorbikes and in a Xylo van. When the dam was about 2km away, they intercepted us. They took our mobile phones and threw away the SIM cards and kidnapped Ganesh,” he said.