Devendra Kumar, a resident of Raipurwa in Kanpur, who had gone to Haldwani last week, was kidnapped by five people from a bus stand there on May 12 while on his way home, Senior Superintendent of Police (Crime) A P Singh said.
On May 14, his parents received a phone call form the kidnappers telling them to reach Shahjahanpur the next day with a ransom amount of Rs 5 lakh, he said.
Upon receiving the call, Devendra's father Virendra complained to the police following which the crime branch decided to accompany him to Shahjahanpur, the SSP said.
Finally on May 18, the kidnappers showed up with Devendra on a motorcycle but upon seeing police on the spot they left the engineer and fled without taking the ransom, the SSP said, adding police chased the kidnappers but failed to nab them.
Investigation is underway and the district police here along with Rampur police are trying to nab the kidnappers, Singh said.