M A I N   N E W S

British police clueless about missing cricketers
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 22
The British Police is still clueless about the whereabouts of five women cricket players from Punjab, who had gone missing from London on August 12 under mysterious circumstances.

Five women cricketers — Baljeet Kaur of Begowal in Kapurthala, Rajwant Kaur of Jalandhar, Ekta of Gazi Barwan village near Pathankot, Pravesh Kumari of Ambala Cantt and Mandip Virk of Ferozepore — had left Amritsar for London on August 10 as members of the Jalandhar-based Lynex Cricket Club.

The way visas were issued to the members of the club by the British High Commission in India has also raised many eye-brows, particularly, as no interview of the team members was reportedly conducted by the Commission authorities.

Talking to The Tribune from London on the phone, Mr Rakesh Kawra, an Attache with the Indian Embassy at London, said there was no trace of the girls so far. “We are in touch with the British Police, which has conveyed to us that the sudden disappearance appeared to be a pre-planned move on the part of the girls. Reports in the British media are also giving the same impression and also that it could be a case of human trafficking,” said Mr Kawra. He said the Indian Embassy was constantly monitoring the situation and was staying in touch with the British Police.

At the same time, investigations by The Tribune reveal that Baljit and Ekta had obtained the mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) from a computer institute based at Begowal in Kapurthala district, while Rajwant had attained the NOC from a computer centre based here for fulfilling one of the mandatory conditions laid down by the Embassy. Mandip Virk had obtained her NOC from an Amritsar-based college. Sources maintained that though two of the players had taken admission in some post-graduate class in April at the local HMV College, but they never turned up in the college. The college principal, Ms P.P. Sharma, refused to give NOC to any of the three girls.

It is also learnt that the applications of the team members were first processed by the Jalandhar-based Visa Application Centre of the British High Commission, which subsequently granted visas to the women players in the first week of August. Interestingly, the High Commission authorities did not even conduct the interview of the players, which, according to immigration experts, is normally conducted in case of people intending to visit the UK for the first time. What is more intriguing is that the 21-day visas were granted in spite of the Punjab Women’s Association shooting off a letter to the Embassy on July 23, urging it not to grant visas in view of the doubtful acts of the club.

When contacted on the phone, Ms Kitty Dawakley, Deputy Head of the Press and Public Affairs Department of the British High Commission, refused to comment on disappearance of the girls and visas granted to them by the Commission. She, however, said it was a normal practice at the Commission to conduct interviews of people going to the UK for the first time. She said documents of such people were also checked at the Jalandhar-based UK Visa Application Centre and at the Commission in New Delhi as well.