Jamshedpur: A 73-year-old well-known trader Bajaranglal Bhartia went missing mysteriously from Jugsalai on Thursday evening.Police suspect the elderly man to have drowned in Kharkai river. His scooter and a pair of sandal belonging to him were found near the Shiv Ghat Temple along the river in the wee hours on Friday.
The police started searching for Bhartia after his son, Kamal Kumar Bhartia lodged a missing report with the Jugsalaipolice station today. The missing trader is a resident of SatyanarayanMandir Road in Jugsalai and runs a cloth store at Bata Chowk. Besides owner of the cloth shop, he is also the president of Shiv GhatMandir Committee.
According to family members, Bhartia had come out of his house on Thursday at 6 pm, when his son Kamal was at the cloth shop. After a while he left the shop by riding his scooter, but did not return home since then.
” We are in state of shock and don�t know what happened.My father used to return home by 9 pm every day, but when he did not come even by 9.30 pm, we got serious about his presence. Subsequently, we started searching for him every where.
At about 2.30 am today we found his scooter parked near the Shiv Ghat Temple, about one kilometre away from the house and his sandal. Then only we came to the police station and informed the police,” said Kamal while talking to the newsmen. He said he has also lodged a missing person report with the Jugsalaipolice station.
Kamal and other family members said there was no reason for his father to take any drastic step like committing suicide as everything was normal at home and also in the business.
OC, Jugsalai police station, KN Ram said from the initial investigation they suspect Bhartiato have drowned in Kharkairiver.