Mystery over missing UK-returned techie

Wife gets ‘kidnap’ text

A 39-year-old software engineer who returned from London to the city after 17 years has gone missing since November 9.

A day after his missing, the family of Prasanna Raghavendra had filed a complaint with the Banashankari police.

Prasanna’s family said the techie, who lives in Banashankari Second Stage, went for a walk at the Lakshmikanth park near Padmanabhanagar around 8 pm and did not return. His wife Hamsa later received a text message saying Prasanna has been kidnapped.

The message also warned the family not to approach the police, assuring them that further communication will be made the next morning. Another message the next morning told Hamsa that her husband was unharmed and would soon return home.

Hamsa’s calls to Prasanna’s mobile phone only returned the message that it was switched off. The communications were in Hindi.

Preliminary inquiries by the Banashankari police revealed that Prasanna was injured after falling from a flight of stairs a week before his disappearance. He posted a YouTube video three days before going missing that he injured his head while falling from the stairways and lost his eyesight. He said he visited ‘Manthralaya’ with his uncle and found his eyesight restored after receiving blessings there.

“I got my eyesight back when doctors lost hope on me,” Prasanna had said in the video.

Prasanna and Hamsa have two daughters respectively aged eight and four. Having spent 17 years in the UK, the techie had returned home only last year.

A senior police officer further added that Prasanna wanted to take a year’s break before launching a start-up company of his own.

A police team that set off to trace Prasanna has found that the techie had stayed in a lodge in Karwar for two days and paid Rs 2000.

“We’re trying our best to track him down,” the police added.