Abducted doctor couple freed, returns home

Five days after being kidnapped, doctor couple Pankaj Gupta and Shubhra Gupta today returned home in Gaya town after being freed in Lucknow, state police chief P K Thakur said.
The couple were freed after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had spoken to his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Akhilesh Yadav following information that the kidnappers were in that state, Thakur told PTI.
The two boarded Poorva Express and reached home this afternoon, Thakur said.
The two had been abducted from Barachatti area of Gaya district on Friday while they were returning to Gaya after attending a wedding in Giridih in Jharkhand.

The kidnappers in police uniform put a red beacon on the doctor's car and escorted it in their two vehicles to Uttar Pradesh, the DGP said adding that the uniforms and beacon light have been found.
Eight persons were arrested in Lucknow in connection with the kidnapping and their interrogation was on, he said.

The kidnapping had put the Nitish Kumar government in a difficult situation with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had organised protest march in Gaya yesterday and threatened to paralyse services across the state if the doctor couple did not return.
IMA had yesterday deferred the strike on assurance of Kumar that the couple would be recovered.

Opposition BJP too attacked the government saying that the kidnapping vindicated the party's claim that "jungle raj" returned in the state after Nitish Kumar joined hands with RJD of Lalu Prasad.
Meanwhile, in Gaya, DIG (Magadh range) P K Shrivastava and new Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj visited the couple.
"They told us that they were given sedatives during captivity. They were tired," Shrivastava told PTI.