NOIDA - The Noida police here Wednesday rescued an official of the Greater Noida authority after gunning down his three abductors.

The incident took place in the sector-88 area under the phase II police station of this township.

According to police, they became aware of the abduction of Shankar Dutt after his family members alerted them. Dutt is the private secretary to the Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Noida Authority.

In his complaint, Dutt’s father said his son usually reached home by 7 p.m. But on Tuesday he did not come home.

Inspector S.K.S. Pratap said that at 7.45 p.m. Dutt’s father received a phone call from one of the abductors demanding the pin code of Dutt’s ATM card. Again after an hour, another phone call was received. This time the abductors demanded Rs.10 lakh in ransom.

“After receiving the complaint, we put the mobile phone under surveillance through which their location was traced in sector-88,” Pratap said. “When a police team at 5.00 a.m. Wednesday chased the abductors in a white Indica car, they opened fire at the police,” Pratap said.

“The police also retaliated by firing. After about 10 rounds of firing three abductors were found critically injured. The victim was found dumped below the rear seat tied with a cord.”

All three men were declared dead in hospital. One of the abductors was identified as Shekhar Sharma, a resident of Dankaur town of Greater Noida. The other two were identified as Mohammad Waseem, a resident of Loni, and Imran, a resident of Maujpur, Delhi.

After being rescued, a visibly shaken Shankar Dutt who also accompanied the Noida Senior Superintendent of Police A.K. Singh to the media briefing, said: “I left my office around 5.30 p.m. and was waiting at the Pari Chowk in Greater Noida to take a bus to Delhi. As I was waiting, a car came and three men offered me a lift to Delhi. Initially, I was tempted but then I refused.”

“Two of the men then pushed me inside the car and began thrashing me. I then fell unconscious. Later, they asked for my ATM pin card number and called my home for the number,” Dutt added.

“Then I heard some firing. I did not know who was firing on whom. I thank the Noida police.”