The daughter of a Melbourne-based Punjab-origin teacher, who disappeared in Amritsar last month, has turned to chief minister Bhagwant Mann for help.
The disappearance of 66-year-old Sunil Sharma, a mathematics teacher in Melbourne, has also attracted media attention in Australia, where his family has been desperately seeking answers after losing contact with him during a visit to India.
Sunil arrived in the country in May and travelled to Amritsar in connection with the sale and maintenance of a property he owned there. However, his family has not heard from him since May 22, and his phone has remained switched off.
In a video message, Sunil’s daughter Surbhi Sharma appealed to the Punjab chief minister and the state government to deploy all available resources to locate her father. Describing her father as someone deeply attached to his roots, she said, “My father is a Punjabi and he loves Punjab. He loved Punjab so much that he invested his money to buy property there. Please bring him home.”
Brother prime suspect
According to the Amritsar Rural police, Sunny Sharma, Sunil Sharma’s brother, is the prime suspect in the case. Sunny and his family have also gone missing. Sunil also has a house in Mohali.
Surbhi said her father had travelled to Amritsar to oversee paint work at the property. She also shared photographs of her uncle, Sunny, claiming he had been seen around the property before her father’s disappearance.
{{/usCountry}}Surbhi said her father had travelled to Amritsar to oversee paint work at the property. She also shared photographs of her uncle, Sunny, claiming he had been seen around the property before her father’s disappearance.
{{/usCountry}}An FIR for kidnapping has been registered at the Kambo police station, falling under the Amritsar Rural jurisdiction. “Police have been searching for Sunny Sharma for questioning. Only he knows my father’s whereabouts,” Surbhi said.
Kambo station house officer Shamsher Singh said Sunny was the prime suspect in this case. “He is absconding along with his family. We will soon nab him. The investigation is in an advanced stage,” he told PTI.
According to the police, Sunny is wanted in another case registered by the Himachal Pradesh Police under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.