Kottayam police widens search for missing couple
The police on Tuesday conducted searches in water bodies, including the Vembanad lake, suspecting that the car might have fallen into them.
Kottayam: The police has intensified the search for the couple missing since the April 6 night. Hashim, 42, and wife Habiba, 37, of Arupara near Kumarakom, had gone out in a grey Maruti Wagon R car around 9 pm for buying food from Kottayam town. The Kumarakom police, which received a petition the next morning and on its basis registered a case of missing, found they did not reach any hotel there. Their two children Fathima, 13, and Bilal, 9, and Mr Hashim’s father Abdul Khader were at home when they went out leaving their mobile phones, driving licenses and ATM cards.
Mr Hashim was running a provision shop nearby. The police on Tuesday conducted searches in water bodies, including the Vembanad lake, suspecting that the car might have fallen into them. They have also done extensive searches at railway stations, bus stations and parking areas and intimated the police in the neighbouring states.
A 20-member police team under the supervision of district police chief N. Ramachandran is taking part in the investigation. “So far we have no clue. We are intensifying searches,” West CI Nirmal Bose, the investigating officer, told DC. The immediate relatives of Mr Hashim including his brother Sadiq, sister Rahmath and her husband Abdul Khader have reached back home from Muscat following this.