The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Please help me find my son”

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Tuesday, Oct 06, 2009
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New Delhi

“Please help me find my son”

Staff Reporter

Japanese student missing from Agra since September 2006

- Photo: V. Sudershan

Cry of Despair: The Mother and sister of Japanese student Kota Shinozaki, who has been missing from Agra since September 2006, at a press conference at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: Eiko Shinozaki, mother of 21-year-old Japanese student Kota who went missing under mysterious circumstances from Agra in September 2006, is on her fourth visit to India now seeking intensification of investigations into the boy’s whereabouts.

“I believe that a few things are still to be resolved. Please help me find my son. I really would like to take him home this time,” pleaded Ms. Shinozaki addressing a press conference here on Monday.

Accompanied by her daughter, Ms. Shinozaki said she had been getting updates on developments in the case through Japanese Embassy officials in New Delhi.

A family friend, Professor Ohashi Masaaki, said investigations conducted so far had thrown up crucial contradictions in the statements of a car driver, Raju, who had taken Kota to Jaipur and then to Agra, and a Japanese-speaking guide, Lalta Prasad Gautam, that needed to be resolved to take the probe forward.

Kota had landed at Delhi airport in the early hours of September 3, 2006, and bought a tour package through a local travel agent.

The police found that Raju had introduced Kota to Gautam, who took him to the Taj Mahal in Agra on September 5, the day he went missing. The receptionist at the Agra hotel where Kota had checked in said he along with the driver and another man, probably the guide, had gone somewhere out that night. The subsequent sequence of events is not clear.

Prof. Masaaki said the UP Police last year decided to make some hotel staff, the driver and the guide undergo narco-analysis tests, but Gautam went missing from his house leaving behind a letter suggesting that he was going to commit suicide.

Through unofficial sources Kota’s parents learnt that during the test Raju disclosed that he went to a local restaurant with Kota and Gautam on the night of September 5 and then he saw Kota and Gautam going out of the restaurant on a cycle-rickshaw. The hotel manager purportedly confessed that he had stolen money from Kota’s bag and signed on a check-out card imitating Kota’s signature. A breakthrough came in February this year when Gautam, who according to Kota’s family has emerged as a prime suspect, was detained by the police at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. However, Prof. Masaaki said Gautam contradicted Raju’s version and said he and Kota had not gone out of the restaurant on a rickshaw after dinner on that fateful night.

“Clearly, there are contradictions that should be explained through appropriate investigation by the Agra Police,” said Prof. Masaaki, adding that Kota’s mother and sister would meet the UP Police authorities in this regard. They would also contact the State Government representatives and meet Gautam -- who is in custody -- and Raju in a bid to trace Kota.

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