Bhubaneswar: Police on Monday arrested five youths, including three students, for allegedly abducting a 17-year-old from Chandrasekharpur on February 26 and demanding a Rs 12 lakh ransom for his release.

The police said the mastermind, Gopal Krushna Mohapatra, 24, claimed to be a Youth Congress office bearer in Puri.

Mohapatra, a graduate in applied electronics, ran a food home delivery business after quitting his software job in Hyderabad. He roped in four youths to abduct people for ransom after incurring a loss of Rs 4 lakh in IPL betting last year.

The Puri resident had roped in ITI student Subhraj Behera, 27, arts graduate Soumya Ranjan Mishra, 24, Abhijit Mishra, 19, a second-year plastic engineering student, and Siddhartha Mohapatra, 19, a diploma student, to kidnap people for ransom.

The police said Mohapatra's girlfriend had set up a Facebook account to zero in on targets.

"The girl would set up meetings with their targets. On February 26, they hired a car and went to Rasulgarh where she was supposed to meet a youth. But the target did not turn up," said Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi.

After two more targets slipped through their hands, they went to Chandrasekh-arpur and kidnapped the 17-year-old in desperation. They later demanded Rs 12 lakh.

The police said the gang initially took the victim to Puri before bringing him to a mess at Bomikhal. They kept him there till February 28.

"By then, they had reduced the ransom amount to Rs 2 lakh. They also kept administering sedatives to him before releasing him on February 28 in exchange for Rs 2 lakh," said assistant commissioner Sanjeev Satpathy. The police are on the lookout for the girl.