Missing trader8217;s family begs for succour

8220;The wait has been agonising and traumatic,8221; Manoj8217;s father Ram Gopal Sharma says. 8220;My daughter-in-law has almost given up eating. If the Calcutta police can8217;t find my son let the CBI take over and bring him back.8221; The aggrieved Sharma has himself been unable to attend office.

8220;Be it the police or the CBI or the military intelligence8230; whosoever can do it, please bring my husband back,8221; pleads Manoj8217;s wife Kusum, trying hard to fight back tears.

The Sharmas are critical of the Calcutta police which, they say, have kept them in the dark about the investigation. 8220;They ask us whether we know about his where abouts!8221; Sharma says.

8220;We have received three-four ransom calls and we have informed the police about them,8221; he adds. 8220;They are saying that Manoj is alive but their logic is that since they have not found Manoj8217;s dead body, he is alive.8221;

The Sharmas are also bitter about the reports that appeared in the local press, apparently leaked by the police, that the young businessman was a womaniser, used to gamble, and was neck-deep in debt.

8220;Though I sometimes used to see him going out with friends, I never noticed anything abnormal. The police are spreading canards about my son. He never smoked, nor have I or any of my office staff ever seen him drunk. He never spent nights outside his house nor did any body ever tell me that my son owed money to him. He was a loving, nice man at home,8221; Sharma fumes.

All that the Calcutta Police are willing to say is that Manoj is alive. SIS Ahmed, additional commissioner of Calcutta Police says: 8220;We have definite information that he is alive. And we have also found that the ransom calls that they received were all fake.8221; Ahmed, however, refused to elaborate.

Meanwhile, little Sumit is looking for his dad and his dead brother. 8220;Do you know where my dad has gone?8221; he asked this reporter.