Mystery still continues over missing Visakhapatnam steel plant staffer

Visakhapatnam: Though it has been a week since the missing of the foreman of Visakhapatnam steel plant (VSP) S Srinivasa Rao, neither the plant management nor the police have any clue about his whereabouts.

It was on Friday, March 19, night that Srinivasa Rao noted down in the office logbook that he would commit self-immolation by jumping into a blast furnace at the plant in support of the agitation against the Centre's decision to privatise the plant. The employee's threat ahead of 'Visakha Ukku Garjana' (staged on March 20) created a flutter causing concern among his family members and the staff. Meanwhile, the police, who have been searching for Srinivasa Rao, made a startling revelation that the foreman had collected a huge amount of money from unemployed youth promising them jobs in the VSP.

The police also said that his assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income. Elaborating further, Circle Inspector of steel plant police station R Satyanarayana Reddy, says, "We have formed five special teams to trace Srinivasa Rao. Search was also done in and around steel plant with the help of the dog squad. We are keeping a close tab on his contact list and soon we will come to know about his whereabouts."

However, the kin of the VSP employee narrate a different version stating that he was a very kind person and hardly gets emotional. They express concern over his disappearance. "Considering the suicide note left by my father, we have searched along the beach stretches. But till now we could not trace his whereabouts," explains S Chaitanya, son of Srinivasa Rao and an MBA student.

Responding to the allegations of his father collecting Rs 2 crore from job aspirants, he says, "We are not aware of his financial commitments as he never discussed it at home."