Calcutta, Feb. 27: An IT firm manager was allegedly kidnapped while returning home from his office at New Town last evening.

The family of Kasba resident Sandipan Das, 34, lodged an FIR with New Town police station this morning alleging that the kidnappers had demanded ransom.

Police sources said the initial demand was for Rs 20 lakh.

“A special team of North 24-Parganas police has been set up to trace Das. The last tower location of his mobile phone showed he was somewhere around Belghoria on the northern fringes of the city,” a senior police officer said.

According to the police, Das, an employee of Capge- mini Consulting, where he has been working since January 2007, had reached office as usual yesterday afternoon. Normally, he works from 1pm to 10pm. “However, yesterday he complained of headache and left office at 8pm,” a North 24-Parganas officer said.

Police sources said Das had first tried to get an office car to reach home but when he was unable to do so, he started walking towards Salt Lake for a taxi.

“But a friend who was travelling in a taxi spotted Das walking and asked him to get in,” the officer said. The friend got down near Salt Lake’s DL block and Das took the same taxi home.

“At 9.40pm, a person called from Sandipan’s mobile and told his father, Samiran, that he had been kidnapped and would be released only in exchange for Rs 20 lakh,” a family source said. “The caller spoke in Hindi and said Sandipan was safe in their custody.”

When Samiran asked for proof that his son had been kidnapped, the caller handed the phone to Sandipan, the police said.

The family again received a call from the kidnappers around 12:30pm today.

“The family told the callers they could not pay more than Rs 10 lakh but the kidnappers were not agreeing to reduce the amount,” the source said.

According to the sources, the family’s lawyer was speaking to the kidnappers till late this evening.

Sandipan’s father is a retired official of a multinational bank. Sandipan is married with a one-and-a-half-year-old boy. A student of Jadavpur Vidyapith and Jagabandhu Institution, he did his BCom from Calcutta University and studied at Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune.

According to his profile on LinkedIn, a professional networking site, he previously worked as a team leader at Infosys BPO and ACS, an accounts assistant at Accenture Services and a senior executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“He is very nice person and an introvert by nature. He is liked by everyone in the neighbourhood,” said Samir Chakraborty, a neighbour.

Throughout the day, nei-ghbours were visiting the Das residence at KP Roy Lane to console his parents and wife. “We are all so worried about him,” Chakraborty said.

Capgemini Consulting refused comment.