NRI youth missing in Aus; family sets $20,000 award

Friday, 01/08/2014

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=112132&boxid=59601&uid=&dat=2014-08-01

Jalandhar : Two months after he went missing under mysterious circumstances, there has been no trace of the Punjabi youth Shiva Chauhan (27) in Melbourne, Australia leading to panic for his family. He went missing on the night of May 1.

Shiva’s elder brother Dinesh Chauhan, who went to Australia on July 1, had given an interview to a Radio channel in Melbourne to spread the message of tracing him.

Dinesh was expected to return to India with the belongings of Shiva within a couple of days.

The family and friends gave a public message on SBS Punjabi programme and announced an award of Australian dollar 20,000 for tracing Shiva. In the radio message, Dinesh along with Gurpreet Singh, the friend of Shiva said he was leaving Melbourne empty-handed, with no further information about his brother. The Homicide Squad in Melbourne was conducting the investigation but there was no clue about him.

“The family had been facing harrowing time, as two months have passed and there is no clue about Shiva’s whereabouts. His elder brother Dinesh also faced a lot of difficulty in going to Australia, as no government agency took note of the incident and provided some assistance. Dinesh went to Australia with a lot of hope but was returning to India with Shiva’s belongings,” said Balwinder, a relative of Shiva.

He said that even Shiva’s mother also posted a video of appeal to trace her son in Australia on the official Facebook page of ‘Please Help trace Shiva’. “It was a difficult time for the family, as they were also fearing a foul play,” he added.

A delivery boy in a company in Melbourne, Shiva gone missing at around 11.30 pmwhile he was on duty. His roommates in Melbourne were the first ones to speak to his family members and informed them about the incident. He was working in a part-time job in Melbourne.

According to the initial Victoria police reports, the mysterious incident came to light after Shiva failed to reach at some location to make delivery and his mobile phone was found switched off. It was also reported in the Australian media that Shiva had last sent a text message while his van was found locked at Hutton Road, Keysborough. His personal belongings including wallet and identification items were also found kept inside the vehicle.

The family had spoken to Shiva on May 1 through Whats App chatting at around 6.30 pm (Australian time). Later, he went for his delivery job and went missing. It was one of his friends in Melbourne, who first informed about his missing incident.

Shiva had gone to Melbourne in the year 2010 on study visa for a hotel management course.