INDIAN POLICE have intensified their search for a nuclear scientist who went missing earlier this week from the Kaiga atomic power plant in southern Karnataka state.
Police said Loknath Mahalingam (47), a senior scientific officer at the state-run nuclear plant, left home early Monday morning for his customary jog and disappeared.
According to his family, he was carrying neither money nor his mobile telephone.
“We have formed a special search team to find the scientist. Combing operations are on in the dense 1,000-acre Mallapur forest and fringe areas for any sign of his presence,” Kaiga district police chief Raman Gupta said.
However, reports from the region said heavy seasonal rain was hampering the search in the forests and hills adjoining Kaiga township, some 500km (310 miles)north of the state capital Bangalore.
The Federal Intelligence Bureau too had joined in the search, indicating the seriousness of the disappearance and the authorities’ concern.
“We are absolutely clueless,” Kaiga plant director V V Sanath Kumar declared. “He is a nice guy and has no enemies. His disappearance is intriguing.”
Senior nuclear officials claimed that Mr Mahalingam had no access to sensitive documents or nuclear secrets.
“He has no sensitive or strategic information,” said G Nageshwara Rao, director of operations of Nuclear Power Corporation of India. He was responsible for training new recruits, he added.
Mr Sanath Kumar too asserted that there was little or no danger of Mr Mahalingam having been kidnapped for nuclear secrets as he did not possess any.
Mr Mahalingam’s colleagues said he was an introvert with few friends and that 10 years ago while working on another atomic plant at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu state he had disappeared for five days.
On his return, he reportedly claimed he had gone to seek spiritual solace.
Believing that he may have repeated his quest, police have been dispatched to several nearby religious places.
But the Times of Indiayesterday reported that six weeks ago Ravi Mule, a non-technical employee from the Kaiga plant was found dead in the township after he left home for a morning walk.
Police have yet to solve his murder.