Delhi High Court seeks information on Indian who went missing in Malaysia

Source – indiatoday.intoday.in

Mukesh Kumar was aged 19 when he was sent to Malaysia in September 2011 by his father to work in a shipping company.

His father Kheta Ram did not know that he was seeing his son for the last time. Three months later, he received the news of his son’s mysterious disappearance.

Six years later, Kheta Ram is still struggling to learn about his son’s fate. After repeated failure to learn the whereabouts of his son, he moved Delhi High Court on Friday through his counsel Rabin Majumder. The court has directed the Centre to update him either about his son’s whereabouts or his fate.

“His son had gone missing barely two months after he had started working on a ship in a Malaysian shipping company. He needs closure,” said Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Deepa Sharma.

CENTRE ASKED TO RESPOND

The court directed the ministries of external affairs, shipping and overseas Indian affairs to place on record the steps taken by them to trace the missing son of the Haryana resident, and listed the matter for hearing in July.

It also asked the government about the status of the FIR lodged by the company with the Malaysian Police after Mukesh disappeared.

As per the company, Kumar had disappeared on December 24, 2011, and while searching the ship for him, they had found his slippers, gloves and cigarettes floating in the water, but his body was not found.

The worried father has pleaded that he wants to know what had happened to his son and whether any effort was made to locate him since 2011.

“We live in a locality where there are 60 families associated to merchant navy. My son Mukesh was impressed with the whole idea of being in merchant navy.

“After his class 12, he filled up the form and with the help of a neighbour who is in the same profession, we sent him to Malaysia. We never thought it was the last time we were seeing him. One day we got the news that he has disappeared. Since then, I am writing to the government to help me reach out to my son or at least tell me what happened to him,” Ram told MAIL TODAY.

“On a ship with so many crew members and people in the middle of the sea, where can Mukesh go missing is the question no one could satisfactorily answer,” he told court.

Kumar had been employed as an ordinary seaman with the Malaysian company in October 2011.

Ram claimed that the company had washed off its hands from all responsibilities after lodging an FIR and then offering Malaysian Ringgit 25,000 (Rs 369,793.91) as final settlement amount. The petitioner had requested the company for an interim compensation of RM 175,000 (Rs 2,588,557.38).