Three members of a criminal gang were killed Wednesday in a shootout with the Bihar police, which raided a village to locate two engineers of a central power generation utility abducted five days ago.
The incident took place at Dumraon village in Patna district, said superintendent of police G.P. Sinha.
He said the three, all belonging to a well known gang, opened fire on the police team which had raided the village after a tip off relating to the two kidnapped engineers of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).
NHPC General Manager T. Mandal and Chief Engineer K.K. Singh had been kidnapped Friday morning from Vaishali district where they were working on a survey for construction of rural roads in the state.
A ransom of Rs.50 million ($1 million) each has been demanded for their release.
Police have raided various places in Vaishali, Patna, Gopalganj, East and West Champaran districts as well as areas in eastern Uttar Pradesh to trace the two engineers.
Police teams have also conducted raids on the premises of two powerful Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) legislators, including one lodged in a jail in a murder case.
A reward of Rs.800,000 ($17,700) for information leading to the abductors has been announced.
--Indo-Asian News Service