Kerala HC orders SIT to trace missing Kochi resident Suraj Lama
text_fields
Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Saturday directed the Commissioner of Police to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to trace Suraj Lama, a Kochi resident who has been missing since October 5 after arriving from Kuwait.
The Division Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice M.B. Snehalatha was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Lama’s son, Santon Lama, seeking urgent action to locate his father. The Bench assured that all efforts would be made to trace the missing individual.
"Now we want to trace him out, we have to trace him out. Come what may, we have to trace him out… We want full details through the embassy now," the Bench remarked during proceedings.
S. Krishna, representing the Directorate of Security and Government Investigation (DSGI), informed the Court that Lama may have been sent back to India on an emergency certificate, possibly due to a lost passport or other reasons for deportation, and requested a week to provide full details. The government pleader added that despite efforts, Lama could not yet be traced.
Petitioner’s counsel, Parvathi Menon, alleged that authorities were not acting with the urgency usually expected in such cases. While refraining from making incriminatory remarks, the Court emphasised that a special team under the Commissioner of Police, headed by an officer of Deputy Commissioner rank, should immediately take over the investigation. The Court also directed that all proceedings and updates be submitted in the next listing, stressing that “every effort must be on by the competent authorities to ensure that he is traced out.”
According to the petition, Lama, a longtime hotelier in Kuwait, went missing after a period of no communication. Friends in Kuwait informed his family that he had been hospitalised for alcohol poisoning and was suffering from partial memory loss and speech impairment. He was later transferred to a deportation centre, and a photograph of a flight ticket showing travel from Kuwait to Kochi on October 5 prompted the family to lodge a complaint at Nedumbassery Police Station.
Despite independent inquiries, media coverage, and intervention by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA), Lama remains untraced.
With IANS inputs