Asansol, Aug. 12: An engineer working as a computer maintenance expert for Posco, which is engaged in the Rs 15,000-crore modernisation project of IISCO Steel Plant in Burnpur, has been missing for the past four days.
The family of 41-year-old Kanchan Gorai, a diploma engineer in computer applications from a Delhi college who was working on contract with the Korean steel major, accused police of dragging their feet on a case even though the missing persons diary was lodged on Thursday.
The police denied the charge.
Gorai, who had seemed "worried" according to his family before he went missing, had left home at Rupnarayanpur for office in a hired car on Tuesday morning.
His wife Reena and brother-in-law Dilip Gorai last spoke to him on his cellphone around 6.40 in the evening. His two mobile phones have been switched off since then.
After Gorai did not return home at night ' he usually returns home at 10.30pm ' his family got in touch with his colleagues.
The colleagues told them that Gorai had left office for home in an office car around 6pm. A colleague, Pathik Dutta, was accompanying him.
Gorai's brother-in-law Dilip said: "The colleague told us that somebody was repeatedly calling Kanchan on his two phones and probably asking him to meet. Kanchan did not seem willing to meet him. When the car reached the Bhagat Singh More on GT Road, Kanchan got off saying that he would take a bus home."
Reena told the police that Gorai seemed "a little absentminded and worried" on Sunday and Monday.
"When I asked him what had happened, he did not say anything. I spoke to him twice over the phone on Tuesday and did not find anything abnormal. He told me he would return home early," she said.
Gorai, who also used to sell computer and laptop sets, has two daughters ' Mahi, 5, and Kankana, one-and-a-half years.
Gorai's father Santosh Gorai, 68, said: "We do not have any enmity with anybody. I don't know what happened to my son."
Dilip accused the police of inaction. "We lodged a missing persons diary with Salanpur police on Thursday. We also met additional deputy commissioner (west) Subrata Ganguly yesterday. But the police have not even managed to trace the call details on Kanchan's phones. We will lodge a case of abduction tomorrow," he said.
The police denied the charge. "We are investigating the case seriously and doing whatever we need to do," Ganguly said.