Abducted Vizag engineer released in Nigeria

​Visakhapatnam: City-based civil engineer M Sai Srinivas (44), who was kidnapped from Dboko town in Nigeria on June 29 along with his colleague Anish Sharma, was released on Saturday morning.

His wife M Srilalitha received a call from the management of the Dangote Cement Plc plant, where Srinivas and Anish Sharma worked as civil engineers, at about 11.30 am on Saturday.

Soon after, Srinivas spoke to his wife and children through Skype call for over an hour, and narrated his experience with the kidnappers. Srinivas and Sharma were shifted to Lagos and admitted into a hosp ital for medical observation. Both will be flown to Mumbai on Friday where the family members were expected to receive them.

Srilalitha told The Hans India that the local anti-social elements had kidnapped them and demanded a ransom of Rs 100 crore. It is not known how much the company had paid to the abductors.

“We are not bothered how much the company had paid to kidnappers, but I am happy that the company had kept their promise to pay the ransom for the release of my husband and his colleague Anish Sharma,” she said.

Narrating the 15-day ordeal that Srinivas and Sharma went through, Srilalitha said they were holed up in a small room in a jungle about 20 km away from Dboko city, and were offered only pieces of bread every day and a glass of water. Luckily, they could request a member of the gang and had obtained sugar and salt to prevent dehydration.

They were terrorised as the abductors always pointed a machine gun at them. However, they were not physically assaulted,’’ she said, and added that as per the latest information the Nigerian police had launched a hunt to nab the abductors.She thanked Chief Minister
N Chandrababu Naidu for taking up the issue with the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, and IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy for visiting her house.