The aerial survey of the dense forest areas of Varandha, Khambataki ghats, rivers and gorges by a private chopper hired by the family members of the four persons who went missing early Saturday morning could not fetch any success.
One of the partners of Paradigm Plus, an advertisement and marketing firm in Kothrud, three employees, including a woman, went missing under mysterious circumstances during their three-day picnic trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka.
The firm’s partner Pranav Lele, Chintan Buch and Sahil Shaikh had started their three-day trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar and Goa on Lele’s car (MH 12 FY 4510) from Baner on Friday midnight.
The trio picked up their colleague Shrutika Chandwani as she wanted to go to her hometown Kolhapur for Diwali. The plan was to drop her in Kolhapur but, according to the police, the last location of their cellphones was just a few minutes ahead of the Khed-Shivapur toll plaza.
Teams of Kothrud, Satara and Sangli police are carrying out search operations along the various areas off the highway.
Dr Chaitanya Buch from Vadodara (Gujarat), the father of Chintan, could not stop his tears as he said that his only son was getting married in December.
“I had called him a few days ago and told him that we would be coming to Pune for shopping during Diwali. However, telling us about the Goa trip, he said of paying a visit to Vadodara later and doing the wedding shopping,” Buch said.
One of the family members of the missing persons said that after registering the missing complaint with Kothrud police they did not wait for police action and, along with firm where the trio was working, hired a private chopper on Monday to conduct aerial survey of Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts.
Speaking to dna, Kothrud police station inspector Shrikant Navale said, “Our probe reveals that one of Shrutika’s phone is on a divert mode and the call is getting diverted to one professor from Symbiosis College.”
He said that the cellphones of all the four missing persons are put on surveillance.
“The possibility of mishap or accident has been ruled out as we have not received any information of an accident involving a car and four persons, including one female, from any of districts,” he said, adding that they are not ruling out the robbery angle.
Meanwhile, cops are questioning the employees of the firm about the relationship of these four people with each other.
“We have not yet received any questionable information about their relationship with each other,” he said, adding that some liquor bottles were found from the flat in Baner where Chintan and Sahil were staying and they are investigating whether the men were drunk before starting the journey..
Pranav used to occasionally come to Chintan and Sahil’s flat as they were working on a project.
He further said that they have received some liquor bottles from their flat in Baner and investigating whether they were drunk while leaving city.
According to the police, a CCTV footage from the Khed-Shivapur toll plaza shows the car with Lele in the driving seat and Chintan in the front seat. “We have been checking all the toll plazas on the routes to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar and Goa. No car bearing the registration number has passed through these routes,” said Navale.
The hotels in Gokarn and Goa where the trio had booked also said that they have not turned up till date.
The journey
Lele leaves his Kothrud residence at 10.30 pm on Friday
Reaches Baner at 11.30 pm and picks up Chintan, Sahil and Shrutika and starts the journey
Around 11.30 pm, Chintan calls the owner of a hotel in Goa where they had advanced booking to inform that the trio will be coming late
The CCTV footage at Khed-Sshivapur toll plaza shows the car passing the area around 2.30 am on Saturday
they cell connection goes off
Connection to their cellphones goes off around 3 am
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