Lakshmikanth, one of the four men abducted late on Wednesday by suspected IS operatives in Libya, held a Phd in electronics from the Gulbarga university, official sources said.
He along with three others were abducted 50 km from the town of Sirte while on their way back to India, an Indian foreign ministry spokesperson had said.
Lakshmikanth and another of the hostages are from Karnataka, while the rest belong to Andhra Pradesh.
Lakshmikanth, 37, had been teaching at a university in Tripoli for the last 5 years, a classmate of his told HT. He did not wish to be named.
When HT contacted his father, Ramakrishna, a retired bank official, he sounded annoyed and refused to speak.
Lakshmikanth's wife and child live with his parents in Raichur, a backward district of North Karnataka.