New Delhi: It’s been four days and senior executive of Pharma company Nicholas Piramal still remains untraceable.
The Special Task Force has joined police teams looking for leads in several cities in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Police sources tell CNN-IBN he could have been abducted for ransom. While the family has not received any ransom calls, Bhatt’s wife Basanti made an appeal via news channels for his safety and said he may have fallen victim to a case of mistaken identities. “Whoever gets to know of him, please inform us. Please send him back, we have no enmity against anyone. We are service-class people,” Basanti said.
The 49-year-old executive and his driver went missing on January 18 in the vicinity of Gwalior on January 17 while going to Indore.
A day later the family filed a police complaint after which Bhatt’s car was found abandoned at Dholpur in Rajasthan, 80 kilometres from Gwalior.
A pair of shoes and a newspaper was found in the car - a Toyota Corolla bearing the number plate MP 09 CB 9750 - and forensic experts were examining it to see whether they belong to Bhat, Dholpur Superintendent of Police Devendra Singh said. Blood stains and others signs of a possible struggle also added to fears that Bhatt may have been kidnapped.
Bhat, a resident of Indore, had informed his family he would be back on Friday night and after it was found that the mobile phones of the executive and his driver were switched off, company officials informed police.
"We are all concerned about Bhat's status and are working with the police to trace him," company director (strategic alliances and communications) Swati A Piramal said in Mumbai.
"Since a human life is involved here, we don't want too much publicity. We don't know who has engineered this entire incident and what are the intentions behind it. His interests may get harmed due to too much attention," she said.
On Monday, the Madhya Pradesh Government roped in the Special Task Force to investigate the disappearance.
MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had condemned the incident.
“This is deplorable and whosoever has done it will be soon caught,” he said. “This is a one-off incident and I'm sure this will not effect the investments that are being made in MP.”
(With agency inputs)
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