THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Five days after they launched a search for missing Latvian national Liga Skromane in the sea off the Kovalam coast, the Navy and Air Force will call off the operation by Thursday noon. On Wednesday, the joint search operation was extended to the deep sea with the help of scuba divers. However, no leads emerged. In a statement, the Defence wing said they did not find Liga’s body during the search carried out under the rocks near the Lighthouse beach area.
They said the areas near the Lighthouse and the Vizhinjam harbour area will be combed on Thursday before the search is called off .The Southern Naval command had mobilised Gemini inflatable boats, underwater sonar and six deep-sea divers for the search from April 1.
In the past four days, the Navy and Air Force searched the Grove beach, Hawa beach, and Lighthouse beach. The SIT probing the missing case had decided to search the sea on the suspicion Liga might have committed suicide, as she was suffering from post-traumatic depression and had attempted suicide twice earlier.Last week, a special team was sent to Gokarna in Karnataka following reports she was seen there with another tourist. The team did not find her, though. Liga went missing on March 14 from Kovalam.