Bhubaneswar, Feb. 17: Business tycoon Subash Agarwal has accused his one-time partner of abducting him for ransom.

The 47-year-old businessman, who was kidnapped from Kolathia on Friday night and rescued from Andhra Pradesh on Saturday, said Srinivas Gundlury Rao, owner of an Andhra Pradesh construction company, had orchestrated the operation.

All the seven accused arrested for kidnapping the businessman, his cousin and driver were sent to jail after their bail pleas were rejected by a local court today. Four of the accused were arrested by Khalikote police in Ganjam district early on Saturday, while the other three were picked up by Pendurthy police in Andhra Pradesh.

The Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police brought the three of them from the neighbouring state on transit remand.

After landing at Biju Patnaik Airport here this morning, Agarwal went to Khandagiri police station where the cops recorded the statements of the businessman and his brother Shankar.

Subash alleged that Rao, who was managing director of Andha Pradesh-based SSVG Construction Company and his one-time associate, had plotted the kidnap to extort money from him.

“My abductors demanded Rs 5 crore from me while I was in their captivity in the car. When I said I would not be able to pay them the money, they reduced their demand to Rs 4 crore and ultimately settled for Rs 1 crore before being caught by the police,” said Agarwal.

On Saturday, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nitinjeet Singh had said the kidnap was a fallout of business rivalry. But Subash said that Rao used to be a sub-contractor and in 2008 he had procured the World Bank funded Rs 80-crore road construction project from Bhadrak to Chandabali from his construction firm.

“We terminated his contract in 2009 because he couldn’t perform and according to an arbitration clause of the contract. The matter is now with the dispute review board. During this period, he had never threatened me nor showed any kind of aggression. But all of a sudden on Friday, he kidnapped me and demanded money from me,” said Agarwal, who had injury marks on his lower lip and below the right eye.

Agarwal, who is chairman of the ARSS group of companies that specialises in infrastructure projects, along with cousin Shankar and driver Bhagirathi Srichandan, were abducted on Friday night while returning to his Nayapalli house in his maroon Mercedes Benz from his Kolathia guesthouse.

The kidnappers abandoned the Mercedes near Gangapada toll gate on the city outskirts and took the three in three other vehicles. But four of them were arrested by Khalikote police when the abducted driver raised an alarm on seeing a patrolling police team.

With inputs from those arrested, the police rescued the Agarwal cousins and arrested three other kidnappers from Anandpuram in Visakhapatnam.

However, the prime accused and Rao managed to escape.

Subash said he had appealed to both the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh governments to arrest the prime accused as soon as possible. “I have appealed to the state government to provide me security,” he said.

DCP Nitinjeet Singh said the process to nab the prime accused was on.

“We will provide security if we get any request from them,” he said.