Kanpur (UP), Jan 24 (PTI) A 49-year-old hardware merchant was rescued here after being allegedly abducted by three men, while they were transporting him somewhere, and the miscreants were arrested, police said on Sunday.

The arrested persons – Anil Gupta (50) of Shahjahanpur, and Arvind Kumar Gupta (26) and Sudhir Kumar (48) of Hardoi – were sent to jail on Sunday on charges of kidnapping, investigation officer (IO) Shilendra Kumar said.

The arrests were made on Saturday when the kidnappers were waiting for a vehicle to take the abductee somewhere, he said.

The victim, Pawan Tiwari of Barra-3, was allegedly abducted on Friday night by three men in a car, Superintendent of Police (South) Deepak Bhuker said.

A search was launched to trace the victim and his motorcycle found near a petrol pump in Barra, following which a complaint was lodged with the local police.

The SP said a hardware factory owner, Jitesh Gupta, was behind the abduction. Tiwari had taken hardware material amounting to several lakh rupees on credit from Jitesh Gupta, he said.

The police succeeded in nabbing the kidnappers and rescuing the victim by tracking down his mobile phone and the car used in the abduction.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)