Parents of Kota Shinozaki, the Japanese student who went missing under mysterious circumstances in Agra on September 5, 2006, have expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which his son's case is being pursued.
Raising suspicion over the role of a Central Bureau of Investigation counsel in the case, they have in a petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requested him to instruct the agency to investigate the matter thoroughly.
Eiko Shinozaki, the aggrieved mother of Kota, while addressing a press conference here on Monday, said: “The Indian Government has been extending every possible help. Four years ago our then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had sent a letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh requesting him to instruct investigations into the matter. Thanks to his support, the CBI started searching for our son across the country. However, we have reports that the CBI counsel did not deal with the case properly and it helped the accused. We request him to get the matter investigated.”
Accompanied by her husband Shigeru Shinozaki and daughter Yoshie, Ms. Shinozaki said when she and her family members visited India in March 2009, they were informed that several suspects had been produced in Agra court. “The trial started at Agra court but the report by our advocate was not good.”
Ms. Shinozaki said she tried to open Kota's page in the missing persons list displayed in the CBI website, but the link was not working. “Even in the new missing persons list, we did not find Kota's name. We have now come to know that three of the accused are out on bail.”
Asserting that her son was alive and in good condition, Ms. Shinozaki said: “Kota is living somewhere in India. He and his friends miss him a lot. It was his third foreign trip and first to India. A student of Keio University, he arrived in New Delhi on September 3, 2006. The same day he purchased a package tour from a local agent in Delhi. The tour agent was supposed to take him to Jaipur and Agra by car and to Varanasi, Gaya, Kolkata and back to Delhi by train. But he went missing in Agra. He has not contacted us since then.”
The family left for Allahabad on Monday to meet an advocate to ascertain if they should file a petition for habeas corpus at Allahahad High Court or Agra court.
