Missing Punjab-origin hotelier’s family offers £25,000 reward
Wednesday, 27/05/2015
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LONDON: The family of an Indianorigin British hotelier feared kidnapped while on a business trip to Punjab has offered a reward of 25,000 pounds (around `25 lakh) to trace his whereabouts.
Fifty-four-year-old Ranjit Singh Powar’s family in Britain fear he may have been kidnapped after he uncharacteristically failed to stay in contact with them and did not catch his return flight from Amritsar on May 14.
Initially offering 10,000 pounds for information leading to his return, Powar’s daughter Emma said the family had now raised that to 25,000 pounds.
The 26-year-old daughter said, “Obviously we just want our dad back. Just anything that can help that really, we’re helpless.”
The UK Foreign Office is looking into the mysterious disappearance of the millionaire while on a business trip to Punjab.
Powar owns four-star Ramada Park Hall Hotel in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands region of England, and is in the habit of ringing his family every day.
But this time, he last spoke to his partner, Angela Bir, on May 7 when he landed in India.
“Father would contact us two or three times a day, if not more. We have not heard from him at all. He is very careful and has always been aware of his security,” Emma said.
Power, who grew up in the West Midlands, has been placed on the West Midlands Police’s Missing Persons list as the Foreign Office joins the investigation.
“A British national was reported missing in India on May 14. We are providing consular assistance to the family and liaising closely with local authorities,” a spokesperson said. A West Midlands Police spokesperson confirmed Power is on the Missing Persons list and urged anyone with information to call 101.
According to media reports, Punjab Police are planning to seek the assistance of Interpol, hoping to locate a man they reportedly want to speak to in relation to the suspected kidnapping of Powar.
