Durgapur, Jan. 5: Jealousy has emerged the motive behind the kidnapping of a Durgapur businessman Santanu Mukherjee.

Chidambaram Reddy, a fish wholesale trader arrested yesterday and suspected to have a hand in Santanu’s abduction, has told the police he was jealous of his friend’s success in business and his lavish lifestyle.

Santanu, 35, went missing after coming out of a pub where he was partying on the night of December 30.

His white Honda City was found near Bokaro railway station in Jharkhand last Saturday.

Police suspect Chidambaram had used a call girl, Manisha Singh, as bait to get Mukherjee out of the pub. Manisha was arrested yesterday from Sonagachhi and brought to Durgapur.

Chidambaram, who is believed to have contacts with Calcutta call girls, had introduced Santanu to Manisha in a Calcutta hotel.

He has told Durgapur police that he was in debt and was jealous about Mukherjee because of his flourishing business and luxurious life. Santanu’s family has received a ransom call for Rs 1.5 crore.

According to the police, Chidambaram said: “I was very close to Santanu. He lived a life of luxury and was a womaniser. I helped him get the girls.... He used to take them to hotels and always asked me to wait in another room. This irritated me.”

The police said Manisha had admitted that she had contacted Santanu over the phone before he went missing but denied any direct involvement in the alleged abduction.

The two were produced in the Durgapur additional chief judicial magistrate’s court today and remanded in police custody for four days.

“We are trying to trace the ransom call made to one of Santanu’s relatives and are checking Santanu’s bank account,” said Utpal Naskar, the Durgapur additional superintendent of police.

Couple suicide

An elderly couple committed suicide, hanging themselves from ceiling fans in their flat in Durgapur.

A suicide note left behind by Suranjan Dutta, 58, said that he and his wife Ratna, 50, were taking their lives because of depression and poverty.

Suranjan used to work in an industrial steel net manufacturing company that shut down 10 years ago. Since then he had been jobless.

Their 28-year-old daughter Nupur had also committed suicide in the same room three months ago after her parents failed to get a good match for her because of their poor financial condition.

Nupur, a graduate, had also written in her suicide note that she was killing herself because she did not want to remain a burden on her parents.