Cuttack: The desperation to get back money deposited with a Ponzi firm has turned three duped persons into kidnappers.

The three have landed in police net for abducting their "deceiver" and demanding ransom of Rs 1.5 lakh from his wife.

Badambadi police on Thursday foiled the trio's bid to get back lost money and arrested them from Jagatsinghpur on charge of kidnapping. The three accused have been identified as Prabhucharan Ojha and Anadi Charan Parida of Balikuda and Karunakar Ojha of Naugaon in Jagatsinghpur district.

The kidnap took place on June 3 around 6pm when Makardhwaja Sahu, 46, was sitting with a friend near a foot overbridge at Badambadi. Six persons came to the spot on three motorcycles and abducted Sahu. Later, they called up Sahu's wife Mamata Manjari, who stays at Rajendranagar, and demanded the ransom amount.

After failing to arrange the money, Manjari had to inform the police, who, in turn, devised a plan and arrested the accused in the process.

Assistant commissioner of police Anil Mishra said: "Sahu apparently did not do any job and had collected money from several persons while trying his hand as an insurance agent. He had also taken part in group deposit collection fund."

"The matter is under investigation as the accused alleged that Sahu had neither deposited the insurance premiums nor did he return the money he got from the group deposit collection fund," Mishra said. "By kidnapping Sahu and demanding the ransom from his wife for his release, the accused persons hoped to get back their money."

"The accused persons aged between 30 and 35 years were also members of the group that managed a deposit collection fund," he said. Its members are allowed to get chunks of the fund and return within a stipulated time. Delay leads to 10 per cent interest on the amount on monthly basis.

The police said the accused, after abducting Sahu, had asked his wife to deposit the ransom money in a bank account. The account number was passed on to her over the phone. As part of the investigation, Badambadi police asked Manjari to contact the kidnappers on the number, from which she had received the ransom call and insist for payment in cash instead of depositing the money in a bank account. Accordingly, a deal was struck between Manjari and the kidnappers that she would pay the money at Kandarpur and take her husband, but on the condition that Sahu's nephew would accompany her.

Following this, Badambadi police station inspector-in-charge Rashmiranjan Mohapatra - posing as the nephew - accompanied Manjari to Kandarpur on Thursday. But when they reached Kandarpur, the kidnappers changed their plan and asked them to pay the money at Jagatsinghpur bus stand. The kidnappers changed their plan and kept switching locations to accept the ransom.

But then Mohapatra traced the phone calls, and retrieved their address from the bank where the ransom was to be initially deposited.

"Then raids followed with the help of local police. In the process, Prabhucharan was first nabbed and then Anadi Charan at Balikuda. Later, Karunakar was tracked down to his house in Naugaon, where he stays with his wife. Sahu was rescued from that house," a Badambadi police station official said.

The police have also seized three motorcycles used in Sahu's abduction. Three more persons involved in the kidnapping are absconding.