Six days after Vishakhapatnam engineer Mangipudi Sai Srinivas was kidnapped in Nigeria, his family is frantic as there is no news of him.

Srinivas (44) and his colleague Anish Sharma were kidnapped while they were getting into the company cab on Wednesday morning in the Nigerian state of Benue. Both work for Dangote Cement in Gboko. Four months ago he was deputed to a company plant is 120km from Gboko, and the family does not know any of his new colleagues.

Sheshgiri, Srinivas’ brother, says: “Things will only progress when the kidnappers approach the police, my brother's employers or the government, but there is no news from them until now. We only demand the safe return of my brother as early as possible.”

On Friday the Indian government ruled out the involvement of terror group Boko Haram saying that Srinivas and Sharma were kidnapped by local criminals.

Sheshgiri, a professor with Gokaroju Rangaraju Engineering college in Hyderabad, rushed to Vizag after hearing the news. “Sri Lalitha (Srinivas’wife) is in tears since she heard the news. She is worried about her husband’s health and wonders if he is being given food.”

For Srinivas’ family, the situation is especially difficult because he was supposed to visit India in June but cancelled his plans because of work. “Unfortunately he couldn’t come, otherwise we wouldn’t have faced this situation now,” Sheshgiri says.

On Friday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to Sri Lalitha and assured her that the government was doing its best to assure his safe return to India at the earliest.

Sheshgiri is also heartened that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met them during his recent visit to Visakhapatnam. “We are thankful that the CM gave us an appointment and also assured us of my brother’s safe return.” he says.