CHENNAI: A 29-year-old man and his girlfriend, who returned from Dubai, were kidnapped by associates of the man's former employer over a financial dispute involving several lakhs. Based on an alert from the man's brother, the city police rescued the duo from a house in Saligramam.

K Sarathkumar of Tiruchy and his girlfriend, a 21-year-old woman, had returned to Chennai last Friday (December 26) from Dubai. Sarathkumar was working as an accountant at a private manpower agency in Dubai for the past seven years, and the woman was also employed in Dubai.

Police sources said that Sarathkumar misappropriated Rs 47 lakh from his employer's bank account as his salary had not been paid for the last six months.

On their landing at Chennai International Airport on December 26, his employer's associates accosted Sarathkumar and the woman and tried to kidnap them in a car.

However, other passengers alerted the police after which all of them were taken to the St Thomas Mount police station, where they gave statements that they would resolve the dispute among themselves.

However, on Sunday night, Sarathkumar's brother contacted the police control room and sought help, after which a police team secured Sarathkumar and his girlfriend from a house in Saligramam. Search is on for their abductors. Further investigations are under way.