Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Police yet to trace missing student

Staff Reporter

Call received from Chennai demanding `ransom'

Thiruvananthapuram: The State police are yet to get any clue regarding the whereabouts of Shyamal Mandal, student of the Thiruvananthapuram engineering college, who was reported missing from the city on October 13. A team is now in Chennai to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Shyamal, who hails from Andaman and Nicobar. His father, Basu Dev Mandal, a school teacher, is with the police team in Chennai.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Fort, T.K. Haridas said Shyamal was reported missing after he went along with a college mate, Digambar, for a 6.30 p.m. show in a cinema. After his son's "disappearance," Mr. Mandal reportedly received a call from a Chennai telephone number on his mobile phone.

The anonymous caller initially demanded Rs.10 lakhs as "ransom" for the student. When Mr. Mandal said his financial position was bad after the tsunami disaster, the caller demanded a smaller amount. The caller had spoken to Mr. Mandal in a Bengali dialect. Mr. Haridas said Shyamal was a loner in the college. He did not fraternise much even with students from his home State. He was not doing well in his studies. The police are probing whether Shyamal had run into some kind of debt. The police have sought the call data record details of the mobile phone used by Shyamal. The police also searched some lodges frequented by engineering college students in the city.

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