Hectic efforts on to locate missing MP couple, says Meghalaya CM Sangma

Shillong, May 29 (IANS) Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Thursday said that the police, district administration and the local community are on a hectic search operation to trace the tourist couple from Madhya Pradesh, who have been reported missing since May 24 while visiting the state’s Sohra-Cherrapunji.

In a video message, the Chief Minister said that his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Mohan Yadav spoke to him over the phone, and he also received a call from the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) about the missing newlywed couple from Indore.

"Our police authority, district police led by Superintendent of Police and local administration, along with the entire local community, are conducting a massive search operation round-the-clock basis to find out and rescue the couple. I am personally monitoring the search and rescue efforts constantly,” Sangma said.

He said that because of the pre-monsoon season, there has been heavy rain for the last couple of days, while Sohra-Cherrapunji always witnessed heavy rains, and the mountainous area is very steep and normally very slippery.

Sangma said: "We treat the tourists as our family members. People of the Sohra-Cherrapunji areas also treated the tourists as their family members. Every single villager is now involved in the search operation."

The police and the local administration are using all possible technologies to find out the missing couple, the Chief Minister said.

A senior police official earlier said that Raja Raghuvanshi, 29, and his wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, 27, residents of Indore, who were touring Meghalaya, went missing on May 24 from the Sohra-Cherrapunji area in the East Khasi Hills district, a tourist hotspot in the northeast region.

The couple hired a two-wheeler and visited the picturesque Sohra-Cherrapunji area before their disappearance, the official had said. Their hired two-wheeler was found abandoned near Sohra Rim, 15 km away from Sohra town. The couple’s mobile phones have been switched off since May 24 night.

Raghuvanshi’s brother, Govind Raghuvanshi, also came to Meghalaya after the couple went missing and issued a public appeal to share information about the whereabouts of the missing duo.

Police had last month found the decomposed body of a Hungarian tourist, identified as Zsolt Puskas, who had been missing since March 29. The body was recovered from a forest at Ramdait village in the East Khasi Hills district. The Hungarian Embassy in New Delhi lodged a missing complaint on March 29, and an FIR was registered four days later, following which the massive search operation was launched by the police along with local villagers and members of social organisations. Police and the villagers suspected that he could have fallen from the hilltop, leading to his death, as the body was found on a steep slope on April 10.

--IANS

sc/vd