Six students from Doaba region have over the past fortnight gone missing in the US, where they had gone as part of academic trips to the NASA centre.

The students belong to Doaba Senior Secondary School, Parowal in Hoshiarpur and Dayanad Public School in Jalandhar. The missing students from Doaba school have been identified as Sumit, Dalbir, Baljinder and Arshadeep. It is also learnt that their teacher Meenu Sharma has got married in the US and requested the school to extend her leave by a month.

Doaba school principal Balwinder Kaur could not be contacted, and the fathers of Sumit and Baljinder expressed ignorance about the whereabouts of their sons.

The students have valid visas for three months and thus no action can be initiated against them immediately.

Earlier, Dayanad Public School has reported that Paramjit Singh of Sultanpur Lodi and Kunal Bhandhari of Jalandhar had not returned from a US trip.

The Dayanand school team was headed by principal Raj Kumar Sehgal and consisted of another teacher and 11 students. The team which left India on July 22 was supposed to return on August 2. However, only nine students, the principal and teacher returned. The two plus-two students preferred to stay back.

Principal Raj Kumar Sehgal said Paramjit and Kunal had asked for permission to go shopping, but were not allowed to go. Then Paramjit managed to give them the slip, though the principal had his passport. “The very next day he called us said he was with his uncle. Though his uncle assured us that he will bring the boy back, he didn’t turn up.” Sehgal said. He alleged that it was pre-planned as the parents of the students were aware of it. Paramjit’s mother has assured us that he will come back before his visa expires.

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