Bhubaneswar, July 3: Saheed Nagar police arrested three persons from Odogaon in Nayagarh district last night for allegedly kidnapping a city-based land broker on July 1.

Sources said five people, including the three arrested, had kidnapped Niranjan Jena, 40, a resident of Bomikhal, because he did not return some money borrowed from one of the accused, Mahadev Rout.

Rout and another accused are absconding. The arrested persons have been identified as Sangram Singh, Sridhar Rout and Jaga Sahu. All of them hail from Odogaon.

Inspector in charge of Saheed Nagar police station K.P. Mishra said Mahadev and his four friends abducted Jena on Sunday night from IDBI Square and took him to Odogaon. They beat him brutally in the car and made him unconscious by hitting his head with beer bottles. They dumped him at Dadhibamanpur College in Odogaon on July 1.

In the morning, Jena went to the local police outpost and the officers there provided him medical treatment and informed Saheed Nagar police about the abduction. Following Jena’s complaint, the Saheed Nagar police conducted raids at various places on Monday and arrested three of the accused.

“The accused persons said that Mahadev had sought their help to kidnap Jena,” said Mishra.

Police said Jena had borrowed Rs 18,000 from Mahadev a year ago. He had returned Rs 8,000 but failed to pay the balance.

On Sunday night, the accused called Jena to IDBI Square. As he knew Mahadev, he did not suspect any foul play and when he approached their vehicle, the accused forcibly pushed him into the car, gagged him and drove away.

Jena’s family members were unaware of his abduction till Monday morning when he called them from Odogaon.

A relative of Jena said they were under the impression that he had gone to Cuttack to find out about his daughter’s matriculation result from the Board of Secondary Education in Cuttack, because the girl had failed to pass the exam.

This was second kidnapping in the city in last one month.

On June 21, some people abducted 15-year-old Gokuldev Pal from his Vivekanand Marg residence and demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore.

The next day, police rescued Pal and arrested three kidnappers.