BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has asked the government advocate to get instructions in connection with a petition seeking directions to the government to transfer the investigation into the case of missing techie Kumar Ajitabh to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Alleging that the city police have absolutely failed to trace his son even 15 days after he went missing, Ajitabh’s father Ashok Kumar Sinha, a native of Patna, has moved the court.
Hearing the petition, Justice A S Bopanna on Thursday also ordered notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs, CBI and the DG&IGP of Karnataka.
Further hearing was adjourned to January 8. Sinha stated that his son has been missing since December 18, 2017 and Whitefield police has not been able to trace him so far.
In his petition, Sinha expressed apprehension that his son’s abduction may be linked to organised crime wherein Ajitabh’s skills in IT could be used for anti-national activities or his life may endangered if he is made a victim of organ trafficking.
Possible abduction is even more perplexing as there have been no demands for ransom, etc., as is generally noticed in other cases of abduction/kidnapping, he claimed.
Pointing out that there has been no headway in the investigation by Whitefield police, Sinha contended that the case warrants transfer to CBI as it is a rare and exceptional one involving investigation outside Karnataka. According to the petition, Ajitabh was residing at Whitefield in the city and was working as a software engineer with British Telecom. There is also a grave threat to his life, it said.
Ajitabh had secured admission in IIM-Calcutta and as his financial condition was not very sound, he wanted to sell his new Maruti Suzuki Ciaz car to meet part of his tuition fee. For this purpose, he put up an advertisement on the online Classifieds portal OLX in November 2017.
On December 18, Ajitabh received a call from an unknown person who claimed to be a prospective buyer for his car. Following this, Ajitabh left home around 6.30 pm to meet the buyer and has been missing ever since.
On December 20, Ajitabh’s friend and flatmate Ravi Kumar lodged a complaint with Whitefield Police Station.
On December 29, his father Sinha lodged another complaint.
The FIRs have been registered but attempts to trace him were not bearing any fruit, Sinha claimed.