Police rescued a three-year-old boy from the Chittagong city's Shulokbahar area yesterday, around 22 hours after he was abducted allegedly by his aunt's husband.

According to police, Mohammad Rafiq, 26, who was arrested in the city's Chandgaon area, told them that he kidnapped his nephew Jobayer as he needed Tk 10,000 to pay an instalment of a loan he had taken from an association.

Jobayer, son of a community club employee Nasir Uddin, was rescued from the house of Rafiq's aunt at Shulokbahar around noon yesterday, said Polash Kanti Nath, additional deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of police.

The police official said Rafiq used to live in his father-in-law's house in Chotopool with Nasir. He recently took out a loan of over Tk 30,000 from an association.

Failing to repay his instalments, Rafiq plotted to kidnap his brother-in-law's son to get Tk 10,000, the DB official said.

Around 3:00pm Saturday, Rafiq took Jobayer to his aunt Samsun Nahar's house. He then called his brother-in-law Nasir several times from a different number and demanded Tk 10,000 for Jobayer's release. Rafiq also gave Nasir a mobile-banking number to send the money, added ADC Polash.

Rafiq, a rickshaw-puller from Chandanish upazila, then returned to his father-in-law's house and looked for Jobayer with the family. But he fled when police started its investigation.

Jubayer Sayed, inspector (investigation) of Halishahar Police Station, said based on mobile-banking number, detectives and Halishahar police in a joint drive arrested Rafiq and rescued the boy.

A case was filed against Rafiq with the police station.