Mystery shrouds the sudden missing of the managing director of Hotel Anand Regency, A. Ravi Sankar Prasad, from the hotel suite here in the wee hours of Monday. As many as four police teams from the Union enclave, Yanam, and Kakinada were on the job of tracing the business magnate who owned chain hotels and partnerships in other businesses, including film and television.
Fifty-four-year-old Prasad checked into Hotel Anand Regency here on Sunday evening and was last seen by the hotel staff in the small hours of Monday. As per the footage of the closed circuit camera installed at the Yanam toll-gate, Mr. Prasad walked towards Yanam-Edurlanka Bridge on the river Godavari at 3.33 a.m. on Monday.
Since then, he was not in touch with any of his contacts and his mobile phone got switched off. Though the family members of Mr. Prasad lodged a complaint with the Yanam police on Monday evening, the police maintained secrecy till Tuesday morning and even then they were not willing to give many details. The police were of the view that Mr. Prasad might have been kidnapped by any of his business rivals or he might have slipped into the river from the bridge during his morning walk.
“We have registered a missing case and are investigating into it from different angles. It is too early to come to a conclusion,” said Purushottaman, Superintendent of Police, Yanam. Besides deputing two teams on investigating the case, the Yanam police sought the help of the East Godavari district police, who, in turn, deputed two more teams. “Search operations are going on in the Godavari and the adjacent villages and islands,” said N. Sivasankar Reddy, Superintendent of Police, East Godavari district. Even 36 hours after the missing of Mr. Prasad, his family members had not received any calls demanding ransom and that was why the police were unable to zero in on the kidnap angle.
A pall of gloom descended on the premises of the newly opened Anand Regency Hotel here, from where Mr. Prasad went missing. None of the employees was willing to speak about the incident, but wishing for good news about the whereabouts of their employer. Though the buzz was that Mr. Prasad might have committed suicide, it is learnt that his family members told the police that he neither had any financial problems nor family issues.
