Kin seek government help to trace missing sailor from Kovai

Speaking to reporters, Karthick’s father Rohtas Singh Dhaka said Karthick joined as a sailor in the Anglo-Eastern Ship Management (India) Private Limited in 2009, when he was 19. He used to go on voyage to various destinations across the world and the duration of his journeys would be six to nine months. He used to return home on a three-month break. 

The BSc Nautical Science graduate, who is serving as a third officer at present, returned to duty in July 2016 and as per schedule should have returned home in February. “But we are unable to get in touch with him since October,” his father added. 

Karthick’s sister Meenakshi Chaudry told DTNext that he spoke to his mother, Usha, over phone from Canada around 8.30 pm on October 19. “He was expecting a promotion order on October 29. He had paused the conversation with her saying that he had to return to work. 

The next morning, we got a letter from the firm stating that Karthick had been missing from the ship since 7 pm on October 19, 2016. But he had talked to his mother an hour later from the time mentioned in the company’s letter,” she said. 

Meenakshi claimed that the firm first told them that he was upset over some issue at home and later changed the version ‘to a rift with his girlfriend.’ “The company told us that they were searching for him and were not confident about his survival. On December 12, 2016, I got a call from Canada. 

The caller said ‘Hello’ before someone grabbed the phone from him. From the voice, I could recognise that it was my brother. Before calling me, he called our home twice from the same number, but it was not answered. Since we don’t have any relatives in the USA or Canada we strongly believe that he called us,” she added. 

Meanwhile, on Sunday the welfare officer of the firm, Rajesh Chacko, got back to the family and insisted on obtaining a death certificate for the youth from the local body as they could not trace him. “We are confident that he is alive and want the government to help us to locate him. Searching the web, we came to know that most of the sailors who went missing were in the age group 25-26. We request the authorities concerned to look into these issues immediately,” Meenakshi said. 

On Monday, the family submitted a petition to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj through the Coimbatore Collector. “We are also trying to meet the officials in the Canadian Embassy,” Dhaka concluded.