Police, Kin Still in Dark About BSNL Official's Whereabouts

Sri Harsha, BSNL sub-divisional engineer, who had been admitted to Medwin Hospital for treatment, has been missing since October 11.

Over the last few days, three-year-old Asin has been asking her grandfather M Sambaiah where her father is but the 65-year-old is at a loss. The elderly man as well as other family members are finding it hard to deflect the child's questions about her father. "'I don't know where he is and how he is doing. I don't know what to tell my granddaughter," says Sambaiah, father-in-law of S Sri Harsha, the sub-divisional engineer in BSNL, who disappeared mysteriously from Medwin hospital on October 11. Till date, both police and family members are clueless about his whereabouts. Sambaiah who went  along with his son, M Sravan to the Abids police station to know the status of the case on Wednesday, had to return home dejected. Sri Harsha (33) who is working in Kurnool had come to the city for treatment at the Medwin hospital at Nampally. Though the investigators themselves appeared baffled about where he could have gone, they have put up posters with his photographs at bus stands, railway stations and other places. "Saritha got married to Harsha four years back. They have two children- Asin and one-year-old Chris. There were no problems between the couple," said Sambaiah. Saritha works as an assistant engineer in Kurnool. Blaming the hospital management for their negligence, M Sravan, Harsha's brother-in-law said even though CCTVs were functioning, it did not record anything. ''The CCTVs did not record anything and therefore the hospital management could not produce video footage. We have our own doubts over his disappearance,'' said Sravan.  After Harsha went missing, the hospital authorities as well as relatives lodged police complaints. As he was suffering from typhoid since the past 20 days, he came to the city for treatment. He was admitted at the Medwin hospital as its the referral hospital for BSNL employees. Harsha wrote a letter asking senior officials to grant him leave and handed it over to his brother for faxing it to his office. Srimantha went out to fax the letter but by the time he returned, Harsha was already missing. Abids inspector K Siva Kumar said that Harsha is a diabetic and was admitted incidentally on the same bed where his father S Madanna, who also worked as SDE in BSNL, died due to diabetes. "Harsha might have got depressed on his condition as he never disclosed he is a diabetic to his wife or in-laws. We have formed a special team to probe the case,'' the inspector said.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com