Bengaluru: Disappearance of Siddi tribal triggers panic

Bengaluru: A 55-year-old man from Mundgod taluk and belonging to Siddi tribe went mysteriously missing from Bowring Hospital in the city on March 13, where he was hospitalised allegedly for an ailment. Family members of the missing person, Francis Arnold, allege that a security agency that brought Francis here was responsible for his disappearance.

The tribe members are also suspicious and hysteric that Francis could have fallen prey to some kidney racket in the city. “His phone has been switched off since then, and the last time we heard from him (Francis) was that he has been hospitalized for an ailment, but unclear of what ailment,” his son Juje Francis told Deccan Chronicle.

“My father was offered a job by one Raj Kumar, whose wife Megha runs a security agency in the city, and brought him to the city over a month ago from our hometown Mundgund,” Juje said.

“We last heard about him from the agency staff who spoke on his phone that he was hospitalized at Bowring Hospital, but we did not get to speak to him even though we insisted. Suspecting something amiss, a relative of Francis here in the city was asked to go to Bowring and check and when the relative went to the hospital, Francis was not there,” Juje said adding “We tried to contact the security agency repeatedly but they all had switched off their phones by then.”

Since then the family members are running pillar to post to register a complaint with the police, but the Ashok Nagar cops took up a missing complaint only on March 18, after the tribe members told the police that they are approaching the media. Interestingly, the complainant in this case is the security agency staff and not the family members of the victim.

Juje Francis along with his cousins are now contemplating to approach the police commissioner to bring the security agency under the scanner and to register a complaint against the security agency staff who was responsible for his disappearance.

“As we belong to the Siddi tribe, originally from Africa, we are discriminated a lot here. Few members of our tribe have been tricked this way and their kidneys have been operated and taken away and that is the reason for our panic,” said Daniel, a relative of Francis.