Missing defence official writes home

The investigative team immediately seized the letter and a police team headed by Additional Station House Officer (R K Puram police station) Bahadur Singh along with Rajendran’s relative Janki Raman and friend Anil Kumar left for Hardwar an hour after the letter was received at 4 pm. The team has also taken the letter with it.

Forty-sixyear-old Rajendran was on Republic Day duty when he left his house early on January 24 saying he had an upset stomach and would visit the neighbourhood pharmacy. He had water bills in his pocket.

Investigators now suspect that theunder secretary left the house after an argument with his wife, Sushila. “She had not disclosed all the information to us,” a policeman said. “There seems to be something more, perhaps, some sort of problem in his family life. However, we cannot state the reason for his disappearance now. A clearer picture will emerge after we find him and ask him what is on his mind.”

But, Sushila maintains there had been no family dispute whatsoever. “We had fights like any other couple. There was nothing abnormal or extra-ordinary about it,” she says. “Neither had we taken any loans that would worry him so much that he would disappear from home.” The contents of the letter indicate that Rajendran believed God had disowned him and that without his grace nothing could happen. “I am surrendering myself at the feet of the Almighty. I want to live on the banks of the river Ganges and worship him.”Rajendran has asked his daughters, 18-year-old Akhila and 16-year-old Suhasini, to concentrate on their studies and dowell in the board examinations. He has wished the girls luck. The letter adds: “You must not feel sorry for me.”

The letter has come as a relief to senior Delhi Police officials here. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-west) P Kamraj informed The Indian Express, “We are expecting the investigative team to be back with Rajendran. It is a relief to know that he had neither been kidnapped nor detained against his will, contrary to the picture that his family had portrayed.”