Bhubaneswar, May 4: Two youths were today sent to jail in connection in connection with a case of kidnapping, confining and threatening to kill a high court lawyer, as the court rejected their bail pleas.

Police arrested the youths last night and seized a car. The youths were identified as Dibya Ranjan Pradhan (26), a resident of Puri who was employed with a finance company, and Shovan Mishra (27), a businessman from Bhubaneswar.

Khandagiri police had registered a case against the accused following a complaint from lawyer Sunil K. Pallei and booked them under sections 363 (kidnapping), 362 (abduction), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (obscene acts and songs) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.

The police said these youths had kidnapped Pallei, a high court lawyer, on April 26 from his residence at Khandagiri and kept him confined at a house in Sundarpada area.

Pallei, however, managed to escape the next day. As he was scared, he left Bhubaneswar and went to his native place in Berhampur. He lodged a complaint with the Khandagiri police on returning to Bhubaneswar on May 2.

“We started to look out for the accused persons as soon as we got the complaint. We arrested them within 24 hours,” said a police officer.

According to the lawyer, seven people came to his office and kidnapped him at gunpoint on April 26. “They assaulted me and demanded Rs 2 lakh,” he added. Explaining the reason behind his kidnapping, he said Dibya Ranjan Pradhan, the prime accused in the case, had taken some nude photographs of my schoolteacher’s daughter last year. Pradhan had threatened the teacher, who lives in Berhampur, to circulate the photos in public if the girl did not marry him.

“He threatened to kill me if I did not help him in bringing in the girl to his place,” said Pallei.