Senior customs officer’s wife goes missing with jewellery

The 50-year-old wife of a senior customs officer, carrying jewellery worth around Rs 20 lakh with her, went missing from outside a bank in Nerul in Navi Mumbai, police said on Monday.

The woman, Sandhya Singh, is the wife of Customs and Central Excise Commissioner Jaiprakash Singh and sister of yesteryear actresses Sulakshana Pandit and Vijeta Pandit. Sandhya's brothers Jatin and Lalit are noted music composers in Bollywood.

"A missing person's complaint was registered on December 15 by her (Sandhya's) husband Jaiprakash after their efforts to trace (her) at places of their relatives and friends failed," said Senior Inspector Rajkumar Chaphekar.

According to Jaiprakash, Sandhya had left their NRI Colony home in Seawoods Darave on December 13 afternoon carrying jewellery worth about Rs 20 lakh to deposit in the locker of Abhyudaya Bank.

"While Sandhya was on her way, her friend Uma Gaur proposed to give her a lift in her car. Accordingly, Sandhya was dropped near the bank by Gaur and has been missing ever since," said Chaphekar.

There were no bank transactions and the last location of her mobile phone was traced near the bank where she was dropped but the phone was later switched off, said the officer.

According to Jaiprakash, he was in Gwalior on December 14 when his son informed him that Sandhya had not returned home. "Initially, we thought she must have gone to relatives' places but she was not found there," he added.

The senior customs officer suspects that his wife might have fallen prey to a trap laid by somebody. He has also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information on the whereabouts of Sandhya.

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