CM aide’s wife hands over bag to man at Delhi airport,both go missing

A missing report about Ranjit Kaur’s bag was lodged at the Police Station-31 last week. Asked about the status of the case on Tuesday,SHO Inspector Jaspal Singh said,“There is no headway in the case as of now. We are still checking it. I can’t comment anything further on the issue.”

As per the complaint,Ranjit Kaur arrived in Delhi from abroad with the bag and,on June 13,boarded a flight from Delhi to Chandigarh. At Delhi airport,she requested a man whom she believed to be travelling by the same flight to Chandigarh,to check the bag in as his own.

According to sources,she did this after realising that she was carrying baggage in excess of the 20 kg permissible on domestic flights. The man agreed,and took the bag away. It is not known if he boarded that flight,or any other.

After landing in Chandigarh,Ranjit Kaur could find neither the man nor her bag. She raised a hue and cry,and the Chandigarh police were called in.

“There was chaos at the airport. Immediately after the incident,we started getting calls from senior officers who inquired into the incident and asked us to do the needful. A report has been lodged and investigations are on,” said a UT police officer.

According to the missing report,the bag had mobile phone accessories,expensive clothes and other valuables which the owner had apparently bought abroad,and some items of personal use. The police complaint did not mention the exact value of the contents.

The Chandigarh police have since gone through the CCTV footage from the airport. “We have procured the CD (of the footage) and checked it. So far,we have not found anything suspicious. We have also sent a copy of the CD to the complainant,as she is the wife of a senior Punjab IAS officer. We have asked her to identify the suspect and let us know,” said a UT police officer.

Top Punjab police officers have been in regular touch with their UT counterparts,pressuring them to trace the alleged thief. Officers from both forces are now in the process of scrutinising the passenger manifest for the flight to verify the antecedents of all those who were on board.

Despite repeated attempts over several days,neither Ranjit Kaur nor D S Guru were available for a comment. Calls to their Sector-5 residence were not returned,and messages went unanswered.