An Indian Air Force (IAF) officer, admitted at the Army Command Hospital in south Kolkata, has been missing for nine days after he was seen “walking out of the hospital in CCTV footage” last Thursday.
Brajesh Kumar Shukla (52), a junior warrant officer of the IAF, currently posted in the Jorhat district of Assam, was admitted to the hospital for a cataract surgery and was scheduled to be discharged last Friday. Police is yet to secure any information on his whereabouts. He was admitted on April 26.
“We [the IAF] are not looking at the incident as a missing case. Unlike missing cases, which have connotations of foul play, there is no evidence of any such occurrences in the current incident. We are treating this as absence without leave,” Ministry of Defence spokesperson Wing Commander S. S. Birdi told The Hindu . The Air Force Police is jointly probing the case along with the Missing Persons Squad of the Kolkata Police. “So far, there is no trace of Mr. Shukla,” Mr. Birdi added.
