A young Manipur-born dance teacher was kidnapped and rescued on Friday from the clutches of a spurned suitor who had whisked her away on his motorcycle from near Kala Mandir and held her captive in his house.

Police found 21-year-old Sangita Hijam, a western dance instructor with Padatik’s Dance World International, crouched and crying in the dingy terrace storeroom of a Broad Street house around one-and-a-half hours after 21-year-old Abdul Shahnawaz had kidnapped her.

Shahnawaz was earlier caught stepping out of National Medical College and Hospital with a bandaged right arm, which he had slashed in front of Sangita — said to be engaged to a colleague now — with the words: “If I can kill myself, I can kill you as well.”

Sangita, who had returned to the city after a year-long teaching stint in Delhi on Thursday, told the police that she did not scream for help fearing that Shahnawaz was still in the house and would harm her. She apparently knew the kidnapper since 2007, a year after first coming to the city.

Dressed in shorts, T-shirt and trendy green converse footwear, the dance instructor had just stepped out of the Padatik studio on AJC Bose Road with two friends for lunch on Friday when Shahnawaz’s yellow Hero Honda Karizma motorcycle screeched to a halt next to the pavement.

“It was around 2.15pm. The youth asked the person riding pillion to get off, grabbed Sangita’s hand and whisked her away before we could alert anybody,” said a witness who did not wish to be named.

Sachetan Jalan, the son of Padatik founder Shyamanand Jalan, called Shakespeare Sarani police station on being informed about what had happened outside the dance studio-cum-office.

The police team that arrived around 2.30pm found Wayne, the 20-year-old who was riding pillion on Shahnawaz’s motorcycle before the kidnapping, standing in front of the Padatik studio with a dazed look on his face.

“I had no idea that he (Shahnawaz) was out to kidnap the girl. He suddenly asked me to get off, which I did because he was in a really foul mood,” officer Debashish Dutta quoted him as saying.

Dutta and his colleague Alok Sarkar asked Wayne to call Shahnawaz on his cellphone while their officer-in-charge, Baidyanath Saha, tracked the call from the police station.

On being asked where he was, Shahnawaz told Wayne that he had injured his arm and was getting it bandaged in a south Calcutta nursing home. The police team went to the nursing home, only to be told that nobody matching his description had come in.

When Wayne called Shahnawaz the second time to ask where the girl was, he replied: “Ladki mere paas hai (the girl is with me).”

By the time he hung up, the location of the cellphone tower was traced to the Park Circus area. Wayne guided the police team to Shahnawaz’s three-storeyed Broad Street house but the police team thought it prudent not to enter the building immediately and endanger Sangita’s life. Officer-in-charge Saha led another team to the area shortly after.

“We waited outside the house for a while and then decided to go towards National Medical College, thinking we might find Shahnawaz there if he was really injured. Our hunch was right,” said Sarkar.

School dropout Shahnawaz, wearing a stud in one ear and ragged jeans, was walking out of the hospital when Wayne identified him. He at first denied kidnapping Sangita but later admitted to locking her up in his secluded terrace storeroom.

Friends said the dance instructor was unhurt but in a state of shock. “She is a very hardworking girl and extremely professional,” said Subhamoy Ghosh, the public relations officer of Indo-Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd that runs Dance World International.

The police said Shahnawaz had followed Sangita to Delhi last year and threatened her in the Padatik office there.

The visor glass on his motorcycle bears the words: “I know ur boyfriend is not perfect for u..so come to me.”

The youth, whose parents are dead, owns a gym on the ground floor of the Broad Street house where Sangita was confined. The first floor is occupied by his uncle. Nobody from the family was available for comment.