A 19-year-old youth was allegedly kidnapped for ransom from his home after his father failed to repay a loan he had taken from the alleged kidnapper, police said.

The youth was rescued and the kidnapper and 3 others were arrested.

The incident was reported in the Pragati Maidan area on Sunday afternoon when the alleged accused — Sanjay Rajak — went to the house of Dipak Kumar and allegedly kidnapped his teenage son in a car.

Rajak, a contractual staff of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, had a KMC board on his car that was used for the alleged kidnapping, the police said.

Kumar, who runs a medicine business, had taken a loan of ₹1.5 lakh from Rajak at a monthly interest of 15 per cent.

“The preliminary investigation revealed that Dipak Kumar had already repaid a portion of the loan but could not repay the entire amount due to the high interest rate. Rajak kidnapped Kumar’s son and demanded ₹1.5 lakh against his release,” said an officer of Pragati Maidan police station.

On Sunday, sometime after Kumar’s son was allegedly abducted in Rajak’s car, Rajak made a video call to Kumar and showed that his son had been kidnapped.

“A ransom of ₹1.5 lakh was sought,” said Rupesh Kumar, who is in charge of the post of joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police.

Kumar reported the matter to the police and acting on their advice, he went to Howrah to pay the ransom and get his son released. “A team of officers followed Kumar from a distance and rescued the young boy from Howrah’s Golabari area,” said a senior officer of the East division of Kolkata Police.

The police have arrested Sanjay Rajak, Rajesh Mallick, Sonu Kumar Mallick and Bishal Yadav in connection with this case.

Based on their statement the police have also seized the silver Wagon R in which the teenager was kidnapped.