July 25, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 09, 1428

BANGALORE: An executive at India's fourth-largest software-maker was kidnapped shortly after dropping his daughter at school on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the company said.

Satya Vedula, a general manager at Satyam Computer Services, was abducted in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, said the spokeswoman by telephone.

“That's all we know so far,” she said from Bangalore.

“It is a completely personal issue, but we are in touch with the family and the police and ready to offer any help if asked.” The Press Trust of India reported that the kidnapping may have been related to a financial dispute between the executive and his landlord, without saying where it got the information.

Last year, kidnappers snatched the three-year-old son of Naresh Gupta, the India head of US software giant Adobe Systems, in the Delhi suburb of Noida.

Police rescued the child four days after he was abducted in an incident that made international headlines and triggered a domestic debate about security.

Kidnapping for ransom is an industry in some parts of India, especially in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh where Noida is located, and the eastern state of Bihar.—AFP