Police clueless about ‘missing’ family

The Delhi Police remains clueless about the mysterious disappearance of a family of five in Pitampura area of Delhi even after 45 days.
One of the family members, Bharat Chawla, who had returned after a missing complaint was filed, said that the rest of the Chawla family was in Dubai on a holiday. However, the police feigned ignorance stating they have no idea about the whereabouts of the family. Bharat Chawla had claimed that his family was under some threat.
The Sunday Guardian had brought to notice the incident last week. But the police seems to have made no substantial efforts to find them or even confirm that the family is indeed in Dubai. “We cannot say for sure where the family is or what happened to them. We will have to contact Bharat Chawla again. We haven’t spoken to him since he met us after returning from Pune. If he says the family is in Dubai, then he should have informed us as well. He has not given us any such information,” said Amit Nara, investigation officer of the case.
The police has remained apathetic since the family was first reported missing. Nara had said last week that “They (went) missing in October and one of them (Bharat) returned after a few days. Some relatives had filed a missing complaint here (Mangolpuri Police Station). Later, we learnt from Bharat that the family had gone to Pune to some spiritual guru and they have not returned since then. When the son came back, we did not ask many questions about the family because we thought this was a case of fraud. We have more serious matters to attend to.”
When contacted, Bharat Chawla remained reluctant to reveal any further information about his family. “I have said before, my family is fine and the police did not contact me about anything,” said Bharat Chawla.
He had earlier admitted that there was a threat to his family but had then retracted his statement. He said: “My family is not missing. There was a threat. We did go to Pune. My family is fine wherever they are. I know their whereabouts.” However, on further inquiry, he changed course saying his family was on a vacation. “My family was under a lot of stress. There were lots of issues and they were mentally disturbed. So, our family doctor asked them to take a break. They left for a holiday to Dubai.”
The family owns an electronics shop in Sonepat which is being run by Bharat Chawla ever since his father Jagdish Chawla went missing. It is possible that they had borrowed large sums of money from loan sharks and the inability to pay it back could be the reason for their disappearance. The IO said that nobody had contacted the police to claim that the Chawlas owed them money.