Bhubaneswar, Dec. 18: An electrical engineer of East Coast Railway alleged that some goons tried to kidnap him near Patia Square at gunpoint this morning.

He said the abduction bid was foiled by local residents, who caught hold of one of the culprits, while the others managed to flee.

However, Infocity police dismissed the kidnap attempt charge and said it was an incident of road rage following an accident.

The youth, who was arrested after passers-by nabbed him, lodged a counter-complaint against the engineer, Bhabani Shankar Routray, 50, following which the cops arrested Routray as well.

Routray alleged that while he was going towards Patia Square in his car after dropping his child at an international school nearby, a four-wheeler hit his vehicle from behind.

“That vehicle had been following mine for some time. Suddenly, it hit my car from behind near a traffic square. After my vehicle hit the road divider and stopped, the occupants of the vehicle rushed towards me and pointed a pistol to my head,” said Routray. He said he knew one of them and they tried to force him into their vehicle.

Local resident Ramakrushna Rao said he saw a group of people attacking a man on the road and dragging him, while the victim shouted for help. “We rushed to the spot and the attackers ran for cover. We caught hold of one of them. One of the suspects had a pistol in his hand which he hid when people gathered and escaped from the spot,” said the local trader.

Later, the Infocity police rushed Routray to a nearby hospital and arrested one of the suspects. They also seized both vehicles.

Routray’s brother Umashankar Routray, who is a builder, said one of the suspects, Mangaraj, had been his business partner in the past, but they had parted ways around eight months ago.

“Mangaraj had been trying to extort money from me. I had even lodged a complaint with the officials at Capital police station, who did not receive my complaint then. Now he has attempted to kidnap my brother and murder him for money,” alleged Umashankar.

However, inspector in charge of Infocity police station Arun Kumar Sahoo said it was a simple case of accident.