A 29-year-old Australian woman of Indian descent has been allegedly kidnapped when she was visiting her parents last week in India.
Ravneet Kaur of Gold Coast had stepped out of her parents’ home in Bagge Ke Peepal village in Ferozepur district of Punjab while talking to her husband over the phone on Thursday. Her family in India says she did not return home after that.
“It was around 11:30 am when she called her husband and she just wandered out of the home. The call lasted for around sixteen minutes but she did not come back,” her brother Jasmeet Singh told SBS Punjabi.
Ms Kaur and her 4-year-old daughter landed in New Delhi on 27th February and stayed in Chandigarh with her husband’s parents until 3rd March before she came to see her parents.
Punjab Police registered an official complaint of kidnapping based on the statement of Ms Kaur’s father.
“According to the complaint given to us, she was talking to her husband in Australia via video call just before the alleged incident. We are investigating the matter after registering the first information report based on the statements of family members,” said Inspector Mohit Dhawan, the officer directly responsible for the investigation of the case.
“We are verifying the call records, CCTV cameras of nearby areas, bank transactions etc. But we have no lead or clue so far. There’s been no ransom call so far,” Mr Dhawan told SBS Punjabi.
Ms Kaur’s family in India say no one should have a motive to kidnap her.
“We have no enmity with anyone. My father is a government servant, I’m a regular working guy- we can’t think of anything why someone would have done this,” her brother Jasmeet said.
Ms Kaur was due to return to Australia later this week. With five days gone since the alleged kidnapping, her four-year-old daughter is distraught.
“We don’t know what to say to her. She is so upset without her mother that she keeps crying all the time,” Mr Singh said. “It’s been five days and the police aren’t saying anything. It’s really a difficult time for us.”
He said the family contacted the Australian High Commission in New Delhi and have provided all the details to them.
