Headed for Russia, Kapurthala youth missing in Latvia

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 19

Mystery shrouds the whereabouts of Sagar, an 18-year-old youth from Bholath in Kapurthala, who had gone to France via the ‘donkey route’ earlier this year. Having reportedly gone missing at Latvia, it is being speculated that he might have either died or been arrested.

The lone son of his parents, Sagar had left India to go to Russia. He was sent to France by an agent based in Kapurthala, but seven months later, he has neither reached his destination nor returned home.

His parents, who last spoke to him five months ago, have been frantically trying to locate his whereabouts.

Sagar’s friends, with whom he was travelling to France, called his family to say that he had died en route in an incident involving heavy snowfall, but they are unwilling to buy the story. His father Bobby Chand said the Latvian army had, in a letter to the Kapurthala police, asked for DNA samples, after a youth’s body was found there. The police said they were processing it.

A travel agent, meanwhile, told the family that Sagar was in jail.

Though the family has complained against the travel agent, an FIR is yet to be registered as the police are awaiting the DNA test report.

“My son went to Russia in February after a neighbour, her husband and his Kartarpur-based brother-in-law assured us that they would send him safely to France. They asked for Rs 14 lakh and we paid Rs 8.2 lakh. On January 6, Sagar was called by the agent to Delhi and sent to Russia. He spent two months in Belarus, after which he was sent to Latvia. Agents tell us that Sagar has been arrested by the Latvian army, but some boys called us up, saying that he had died en route as it was snowing heavily. They had to go through Germany, but my son got no further than Latvia. The agent had earlier said he would call in 15 days, and later, two months,” his father said.

“The last time I spoke to my son was on February 25. He had told me that the agent was taking them to Germany. They were to go by taxis, then a 25-30 km walk, again a taxi and a ‘trolley’. We have complained to Kapurthala and Bholath police many times. We have been urging Indians abroad to tell us if they have spotted him at a camp, jail or anywhere else,” the distraught father said. Harjinder Singh, SHO of Bholath police station, said: “The DNA samples of the parents have been taken and are being sent through a forensic lab. An FIR can be registered only when the DNA report arrives.”

Dead or in jail?

• In a letter to the Kapurthala police, the Latvian army has sought DNA samples after a youth’s body was found in that country
• A travel agent told Sagar’s family that the youth, lone son of his parents, was in jail
• But Sagar’s co-travellers said he had died in an incident involving heavy snowfall