This time, the Allahabad police lodged an FIR on Friday evening against another two officials — Diwakar Tripathi and Sanjay Tiwari — from the Varanasi branch in connection with the abduction of two contractors from Allahabad. The accused are, however, absconding.

The matter came to light after the contractors were released on Friday. On the same day, they filed a complaint against the inspectors alleging that they had kidnapped them from Civil Lines in Allahabad and held them captive in a lodge in Varanasi for two days.

The contractors, Suhail Ahmad and Ahsan, residents of Zero Road, were called by Diwakar and Sanjay on January 12 on the pretext of discussing some business issue. As soon as they reached the spot, they were pushed into a jeep and taken to Varanasi.

Locked in a room of a lodge near Hotel Taj in Varanasi, they were threatened of being implicated in false cases, if they did not pay Rs 15 lakh as ransom. “There were some more people in the same room, who were held captive by the narcotics officials. The officials asked us to contact our family and ask for the money immediately,” said Suhail.

“They had kidnapped a business man from Rajasthan and had demanded Rs 8 lakh from him. Diwakar and his accomplices had tortured us till we agreed to accept their demand,” said Ahsan.

Suhail asked his brother, Feroze, to come with the ransom money at a designated place. Suspecting that something must be wrong, Feroze contacted the police.

Policemen from the Special Operation Group immediately followed Feroze and arrested the man, who had come to collect the ransom money from the Laxmi crossing in Allahabad on Wednesday. When the kidnappers learnt about the arrest of their man in Allahabad, they released all the captives with a threat of implicating them in false cases if they disclose their identity to the police.

The arrested person, however, told the SOG that Diwakar and Sanjay of the narcotics department were behind the kidnapping.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Allahabad region, MA Jain, immediately held talks with the senior officers and ordered them to look into the matter. The officers have launched a manhunt to nab the accused. On the instruction of the SSP, the Civil Lines police on Friday evening lodged an FIR against Diwakar and Sanjay under Section 365 (kidnapping for ransom), 368 (hold captive), 506 (threat to life), 504 (insult) and 323 (inflict injury) of IPC.