TV can track Bharti but Govt can't

New Delhi/London: A day after CNN-IBN had tracked Bharti Yadav to a London address - 33, Sutton Way, Middlesex, UK, the Indian High Commission in UK claims it can't find Bharti.

Bharti, the daughter of powerful Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav and now an illegal resident of UK, is a prime witness in the high-profile Nitish Katara murder case.

Her passport was revoked in March, but the Government seems to be dragging its feet on the issue.

"There has been no effort on the part of the Government to track Bharti," alleges mother of Nitish Katara, Neelam Katara.

It was Bharti's friendship with Nitish Katara and the disapproval of this friendship by Bharti's brother, Vikas Yadav, which allegedly led to Katara's murder.

Katara was allegedly kidnapped and murdered on the night of February 16-17, 2002 from Ghaziabad, UP, where he had gone to attend a friend's wedding.

Using the address Bharti Yadav had supplied in a fax to the Delhi sessions court, the CNN-IBN team on Monday arrived at a quiet lane in the Asian suburban neighbourhood of Heston in Middlesex.

The house had a name plate of G S Nahal.

When the CNN-IBN team rang the doorbell, a teenager opened the door but she refused to show her face or give her name. However, she did say that Bharti lived at the house.

Here are excerpts of the conversation:

CNN-IBN: Does Bharti Yadav live here?

Girl: Yes, she does.

CNN-IBN: Is she here now?

Girl: No, she is not.

CNN-IBN: Do you know where is she?

Girl: I am not allowed to talk.

It didn't take much effort for CNN-IBN to find where Bharti Yadav is supposedly living.

Surprisingly, the Indian Governemnt has not been able to trace her despite revoking her passport in March. The Government sent a noitce to Interpol on July 5 to trace Bharti and the procedure will take another six weeks.

"They have the UK Home Office around their little finger. It takes six weeks for the UK Home Office to send anything to the Metropolitan Police. Whatever they say, however irrational, our home ministry passes it on to the court," says Neelam Katara.

The lack of will on the part of the authorities to deport Bharti Yadav is showing now and questions have been raised as to why Bharti Yadav has not been deported despite living illegally in UK and why is it that a simple procedure like a deportation has taken over four months without any porgress.