Engineer goes missing from ONGC platform, family suspects foul play | Latest News India | Times Of Ahmedabad
Mumbai Police have begun an investigation into the disappearance of a 26-year-old electrical engineer from an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) platform last week, officials aware of the matter said on Friday.
While the engineer’s family alleged foul play, police dismissed the claims. Prima facie, it appears as though the engineer jumped into the sea, police officials said, adding that a detailed probe is underway.
Enos Varghese, a resident of Adoor in Kerala, worked as an engineer for System Protection, a Gujarat-based company that was deployed on the ONGC platform at Bombay High South (BHS).
According to the deceased’s family, Enos was on an assignment and first visited the platform on February 12. He went missing on February 24.
The engineer’s family alleged foul play and said he was scheduled to return to Vadodara on February 25.
“On February 24, he spoke to his mother and was to return home. We later learnt from his friends that he had spoken to them too and said his life was in danger,” the engineer’s father, Reji Varghese, said.
“A police officer told us that my son had jumped into the sea. However, they are unable to find the body. He was not someone who could have committed suicide. There is something more to it. We want the police to conduct a thorough investigation,” Reji, a retired army man, said.
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Satyanarayan Chaudhary, joint commissioner of police (law and order), ruled out any foul play in the case. “DCP, port zone, visited the spot and recorded statements of Enos’ colleagues. There is no foul play. However, a thorough investigation will be done,” he said.
An officer at Yellow Gate police station said a colleague of Enos said he saw him jump into the sea. “The colleague said he had thrown a safety wheel at Enos but he did not catch it. It appears to be a case of suicide but we do not known the reason behind it,” the officer said, seeking anonymity.
Police are yet to come across any concrete lead. “We are not sure how he went missing. There are no CCTV cameras in the area. A search operation is underway. Also, since the lights in the area were reportedly off at the time of the incident, nobody could have seen anything,” senior police inspector Sarla Vasave said.
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A spokesperson for ONGC said it’s a very unfortunate incident and a search operation is going on in the sea. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre along with ONGC, Indian Navy and Coast Guard are conducting the search.
Meanwhile, the engineer’s father said: “I am leaving the city now. I have been in Mumbai since February 25. I have not got any satisfactory answers from anyone, nor have they been able to find his body. My wife Sibi is unwell, and my mother, Shashma Baby, is also unwell and hospitalised.”
Police have filed an accidental death report in the matter presently.