Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100759830500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

In search of his son for over a year

M.T. Shiva Kumar

Sharath Babu, who was a trainee software engineer, went missing on his way back from
work last year

BANGALORE: With an aching heart that still harbours hope, M. Venkatesh Murthy recently marked a painful anniversary. It was on September 13 last that his 27-year-old son went missing.

The police have given up looking for him, but not Mr. Murthy. He has taken over the search, printing 3,500 photographs of his son and distributing them to shopkeepers in various areas in the hope that someone somewhere will be able to recall something.

Mr. Murthy, an advocate, has looked for his son everywhere in the city, besides Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Goa. Nobody is able to explain what happened to V. Sharath Babu, who worked as trainee software engineer at the Samsung office in Whitefield Tech Park. He had completed his M.Tech. at the R.V. College of Engineering and was recruited by Samsung. A resident of BTM Layout 2nd Stage, Sharath boarded the company bus around 7.30 p.m. on September 13 last, and was to reach home around 9 p.m. It was raining heavily when he got off at Madivala around 9.15 p.m. He called his father to say that he would reach home once the rain stopped. After that, his cell phone was switched off. He did not come home, and the next day Mr. Murthy filed a missing complaint with the Madivala police. “I don’t know what happened to my son. The police say that it is difficult to trace him as they have no clue about his whereabouts,” Mr. Murthy told The Hindu.

“The police are perplexed because they are unable to make any progress even though my son’s call details were scrutinised. I did not receive any ransom calls; I can easily rule out a love affair or other possible reasons for his disappearance. Only an effective investigation can trace him. In spite of submitting memorandums to the Bangalore City Police Commissioner, the Joint Commissioner of Police, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, the Inspector-General for Police (Intelligence), Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) and so on, my son has not been traced. I hope to find him one day. I am planning to assign this job to a private detective agency.”

“We searched all possible places that Sharath may have visited but have not had any breakthrough. Our personnel checked his call records. We had sent our teams to various parts of Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. His photograph with a lookout notice was sent to police stations across Karnataka and other States but our efforts have not yielded any result,” said an officer at the Madivala police station.

Mr. Murthy said that he was planning to go on fast in front of the office of Bangalore City Police Commissioner if his son is not traced.