With their family member missing for almost three months now in the African country of Guinea, a Barmer family has sought help from all quarters - including the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) - to figure out his whereabouts and bring him back home to India. In July last year, Jivraj Beniwal, about 30, had left for Conakry - the capital and largest city of Guinea, a country on the west coast of the African continent. Hailing from Barmer’s Rampura Garal village, Jivraj had left to start his tiles business. Talking to The Indian Express, Jivraj’s older brother Virama Beniwal, 34, said that Jivraj last spoke to the family around 8 pm on December 29 last year “We usually spoke over a WhatsApp call and he called his wife on the evening of December 29. Later, he also called another person in our village but that person missed the calls as it was past midnight here – there is a 5:30 hour time difference between the two countries,” he said. “When he called back Jivraj the next day, there was no response. We also called Jivraj and sent him messages but the calls didn't go through and the messages couldn’t be delivered either,” Virama said. Virama said that when Jivraj had gone in July, he had shared his location with a family member, “We looked up the location and managed to get in touch with an Indian national nearby. That person went to Jivraj’s home and found that he wasn’t there. He then asked the neighbours who said that Jivraj had left home on the evening of December 29 with a bag.” He says that the family has tried pursuing his case with the local police and administration but has made little headway. Virama says that Jivraj knows his way around and has lived and worked in Congo, Azerbaijan and Senegal earlier, so it is especially worrisome that he could vanish in such a manner. The family members met Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal at his Delhi residence Friday and apprised him about the situation. Beniwal then spoke to officials in the MEA and also wrote a letter to MEA minister Dr S Jaishankar. In his letter, the MP has urged Jaishankar to take action “as soon as possible” in the matter. Back home, Jivraj is awaited by his wife, Gairan, four-year-old son Himanshu, father Dalaram Beniwal, grandmother Meera Devi and brother Virama, among others. The Indian Express has tried reaching the MEA for a response.
