Alipurduar kidnap jitters

ANIRBAN CHOUDHURY, TT,  Jan 06, 2018, Alipurduar: Most wholesale traders stayed away from a haat (temporary market) at Alipurduar's Palashbari on Saturday because of fears sparked by the abduction of a local rice merchant.

Swapan Das was kidnapped by miscreants suspected to have links with insurgent groups, possibly from the Northeast, from near the haat on Wednesday. There has been no headway in the probe yet.

A trader said goods worth Rs 1 crore are sold in the haat. "On Saturday, the sales did not even cross Rs 2 lakh," he said. The fears intensified after the traders found a police camp locked. "Das was abducted while returning home from the haat. Still, on Saturday, there were no policemen," said Gobinda Biswas, secretary of the Palashbari traders' association.

Days after Das was kidnapped, another local trader received a letter from a little-known outfit demanding Rs 2 lakh. "We are probing the cases," Alipurduar police chief A. Ravindranath said.