Baripada, Oct. 15: Mayurbhanj police today arrested a 30-year-old man for kidnapping his father for ransom. The accused had offered Rs 50,000 to the abductors for the job.

Bhagabat Behera, 61, a retired teacher of Tangadhua village in Betnati police limits, was allegedly kidnapped on Monday around 11.30am.

"The kidnap drama was engineered by Abani Behera and executed by some goons. They were identified from the CCTV footage of ATM counters and later nabbed by tracking their mobile phones," said Betnati sub-divisional police officer Dhiren Chandra Nanda.

The cops said that the relationship between the father and son was strained because of Abani's criminal activities. Abani feared that his father would give all his retirement benefits to his three married daughters.

The cops arrested Himansu Nayak, 32, and Ajay Patra, 19, both residents of Baghraroad in Baripada town, apart from Abani. The three were produced before the court today. However, two more accused - Sk Salim and Sk Munna, both of Baripada town - were at large.

The sub-divisional police officer said all the accused persons had criminal antecedents. Mastermind Abani was earlier in jail for three months in connection with a crime.

The arrested persons were booked under several sections of the IPC and the Arms Act.

The kidnap complaint was lodged by Abani, the prime accused, on Tuesday night. The complainant had said his father had been kidnapped by the unknown goons while he was going to see his daughter in Baripada hospital in a bus with Rs 45,000 in cash.

The retired teacher was asked to hand over three blank bank cheques for his release, Abani said. After he complied with their demand, the abductor made a fresh demand of another Rs 7 lakh cash from him, Abani mentioned in his complaint.

Soon after the complaint, all police stations of Mayurbhanj and neighbouring districts were alerted and the photograph of the abducted was circulated. Different teams were formed to track the kidnappers.

The kidnappers had withdrawn Rs 80,000 cash from different ATM counters. In the meantime, the police had blocked the account of the victim, which was with the SBI Jharpokharia branch. After identifying the kidnappers from the CCTV footage of the ATM counters the cops began tracking their mobile phones.

The kidnappers went to Bhadrak in a car and tried to cash one of the three cheques at an SBI branch there. They wanted to withdraw Rs 3 lakh from the branch. However, the branch officials told them that the account had been blocked and advised them to go to the original branch at Jharpokharia for withdrawal. When they reached the Jharpokharia branch yesterday, the cops caught Himansu and Ajay while the other two escaped.

After sustained interrogation, the accused broke down and divulged all the facts. The cops also found out that mastermind Abani was in constant touch with the kidnappers on the day of kidnapping over their mobile phones and arrested him subsequently.