Mumbai: A visit with her family to Gujarat for Diwali has turned into a nightmare for Kandivali resident Annapurna Thakkar, whose husband and daughters are missing after leaving her sister’s home to visit a cyber cafe on October 24. In her complaint to the police in Udhna, Surat, Ms. Thakkar said she suspects her husband, Vipul, has eloped.
On October 24, Ms. Thakkar had visited her sister Harshida in Udhna with her daughters Jiya, 7, and Arvi, 4 after her trip to Navsari. Vipul, she said, was to join them in the evening from Mumbai. “He arrived and took our daughters and my brother-in-law out, saying he wanted to visit a cyber cafe. He said he wanted the girls to appear for an online interview. At the cyber cafe, he told my brother-in-law to go home as it was likely to take a long time. He never came back.”
Two years ago, Ms. Thakkar said, she had come to know of his affair with an employee at his shop in Mangaldas Market. He, however, denied this when she confronted him. “It seems Vipul was in a relationship with this girl before we married, but couldn’t marry her. I suspect he had been planning this all along.”
Job in the US
While she was waiting for Vipul and the kids to return, she received a WhatsApp message from him saying he was returning to Mumbai.
Confused, she took a train to Mumbai after midnight to join them. En route, Vipul sent her another message saying he was relocating to the USA with the children as he owed ₹1.5 crore to people and was depressed.
When she returned to their rented apartment in Kandivali, Ms. Thakkar was shocked to find that many utensils, kids’ and husband’s clothes and documents including her passport and marriage certificate were missing.
She said, “His shop earned at least ₹1.5 lakh per month. Recently, he sold our flat in Vasai and kept the money with himself. Overnight, he has shut his shop and gone missing with the kids, money, documents and the car. I suspect he procured merchandise for the shop on credit so that he has enough money to elope and start afresh. He mentioned a job in the US as floor manager in a company, but didn’t give details. He doesn’t have the education to get a job in the US; I think he is somewhere in Gujarat. I want my kids back. How can he simply take them away?,”
Senior PI Chetan Jadav, Udhna police station, said, “We are placing the mobile numbers of Vipul and his alleged girlfriend under surveillance. We have also asked for information from toll nakas in case their car crossed into a neighbouring State.”
Ms. Thakkar, meanwhile, is in Kandivali without money or vital documents. “I hope the police find my kids at the earliest,” she said.
