Mechanic missing, worried kin kick up row at Bengaluru police station

BENGALURU: Scores of relatives and friends of a missing 24-year-old Royal Enfield showroom mechanic stormed into the Mico Layout police station on Sunday and wanted to know the status of the case. This, after they came to know that an unidentified body had been found in Tumakuru district.
Mico Layout police said Ajaya S of Kalkere on Bannerghatta Road and a mechanic with the Royal Enfield showroom in BTM Layout II Stage, went missing on September 16.
“He didn’t return home after work and his parents filed a missing-person complaint two days later. We suspect some miscreants abducted Ajaya over his alleged relationship with a woman. Efforts are on to trace Ajaya,” said a police officer.
“They (Ajaya’s relatives and friends) demanded that we clarify whether he was alive or not. But how can we answer this question if we have no clue about his whereabouts?” he added.
Shankar N, Ajaya’s father, told TOI, “My son didn’t return home on September 16. I rushed to the showroom and learnt he had left by 5.10pm on his scooter. I got a call from his mobile phone around 7.30pm, but I heard a stranger’s voice. He introduced himself as a policeman over the phone. The caller told me that my son had committed an offence and they were bringing him to our house and asked me to wait for them.”
Shankar said no one came to his residence that night. “I went to several police stations to know whether my son was arrested in any case. I didn’t find him, so I rushed to Mico Layout station to file a complaint. But they registered the case only two days later,” he alleged.
Shankar claimed police took him to Tumakuru on Sunday night to show him an unidentified body found earlier in the day.
But a police officer said, “We can’t say any missing person is dead until we find the body. We received information about an unidentified body found in Tumakuru. Cops have taken Ajaya’s relatives there for confirmation. We will share details once the team verifies the body.”