Four abducted railway employees released

Ranchi, Oct 21 (UNI) Four days after abduction, four Railway employees, including the Station Master of McCluskieganj railway station, were released late last night.

The four were left unhurt near Hendegir railway station at Barkagaon in Hazaribagh district at about 2200 hrs and were later brought to the state capital.

DGP V D Ram said the Jharkhand Prastuti Committee was behind the abduction but neither any banned organisation nor criminal gang owned responsibility.

Police claimed that continuous raids in and around the hilly areas of McCluskieganj railway station compelled the abductors to release the employees.

Earlier, with the railway employees disrupting services and mounting pressure on the government, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad also took special interest in securing safe release of the four employees.

On October 17, about 12 armed people came to the station and ransacked the station, about 60 km from here.

However, a chowkidar who was among the five initially kidnapped, was released later.

The kidnappers held station master Kamal Kishore and four others hostage and looted Rs 2,395 from the ticket sales counter before decamping.

Police were carrying out raids based on information received from the released chowkidar Bubaneshwar Mahto.

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