Madhessia, along with two medical representatives — Vikram Singh and Santosh Mishra — was returning home in a Scorpio from a nursing home in Deoria when the incident took place. The next morning, however, the kidnappers released the medical representatives and Toofani Yadav, the driver, on Sonepur by-pass in Bihar’s Vaishali district.

The family members of Madhessia denied having received any ransom call so far.

“The last time I received a call from Dr Madhessia was around 7.45 pm on Saturday. He told me that he will be reaching home within half-an-hour,” said Madhessia’s wife Dr Sunita Gupta.

When Madhessia did not return till late Saturday evening, she contacted her relatives and friends. When she received no information about Madhessia’s whereabouts, Gupta lodged a complaint with the police. “Next morning, I received a call from Vikram Singh who told me what had happened. Half-an-hour later, Santosh Mishra also called up,” she said.

Madhessia runs a nursing home in Gorakhpur and visits another nursing home run by his friend Dr Atul Sinha in Deoria every Saturday. On the fateful day, he was returning from Sinha’s nursing home, when a Bolero overtook them near Chaura-Chauri in Deoria, and asked driver Toofani Yadav to stop. Five men came down from the Bolero and sat inside the Scorpio.

The medical representatives had told the police that the armed kidnappers had asked the Scorpio driver to follow the Bolero. Later, one of the kidnappers took control of the steering. The kidnappers then gave them injections, which made them unconscious. The next morning when they gained consciousness, they found themselves in Bihar along with the driver.