Satyam Kumar

Patna, Dec. 10: Satyam Kumar, the Sitamarhi boy studying in Paris, went missing from last Saturday after meeting up with his friends Nitish and Abhishek Singh the previous day.

The body of the 28-year-old former IITian, who had enrolled at the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique University in Paris this year, was found in an artificial lake inside the campus on Wednesday.

Satyam, who did his BTech and MTech from IIT-Mumbai, had been staying in the French capital since August. He was pursuing a Masters degree in Mechanics in Computational Fluid Dynamics at the Paris institute.

His family today faxed a letter to the Indian embassy in Paris requesting them to send the body of Satyam and his medical report as soon as possible. Embassy officials had yesterday said they were carrying out the necessary formalities.

“It is getting so difficult to wait like this. I have lost my only son. At least I can get his body on time without any delay,” Satyam’s mother Sobha Devi said over the phone, her voice choking. Satyam’s father Dinkar Kumar is a schoolteacher in Sitamarhi, around 200km from Patna.

Satyam’s friends in Sitamarhi said that till late tonight they had no information about the transportation of the body. “Satyam’s uncle is in New Delhi and is meeting the authorities concerned trying to get details. A fax has been sent to the Indian embassy today. But right now, we have got no answers as to when the body will be released by them,” said Manish Raj, a friend of Satyam who lives in Patna.

On Wednesday, the day when Satyam’s body was recovered, his friends here called up Nitish, a Patna boy, who too was studying in the Ecole university, and Nitish’s friend Abhishek, who is a student at the IFP School in Paris, in order to get details about the incident. The friends recorded the conversation (which is with The Telegraph) they had in which a low-voiced Nitish said that on Friday night, their examinations were over and a party was planned beside the lake.

The menu also included a bottle of Jack Daniels whisky.

“Our examinations were over and it was Satyam’s idea to party. My papers had not gone very well and despite being planned, I was not feeling like going. But Satyam insisted. I also invited Abhishek, a friend of mine studying in the IFP School in Paris to be with us. We were batch mates at IIT-Kanpur. Abhishek had never actually met Satyam. I carried a bag with a one litre bottle of Jack Daniels whisky. Around 8.30pm we sat down near a hut next to the lake and chatted as we drank,” Nitish told Satyam’s friend over the phone.

The talked and drank for three hours.

“Abhishek (a native of Allahabad) was new to our campus and did not know the way out. After three hours, he got up and asked me to accompany him to the nearest Metro station. We asked Satyam to come along but he refused. After this, Abhishek and I left and I showed him the way to the Metro station. Then, I went back to my hostel room and slept,” Nitish is heard saying.

Nitish then tells Satyam’s friends he got up around 10.15am on Saturday and went back to the place of their rendezvous. “Once I woke up, I remembered that I had left my bag in the same place. I went to the same spot hurriedly but could not find my bag. Instead I found Satyam’s camera lying nearby. Confused, I came back and went to Satyam’s room. But he wasn’t there. Guessing that he might have gone to either the toilet or the laboratory, I came back to the room and slept again,” Nitish said.

Around 4pm on Saturday, Nitish says he got up from his sleep, had a bath and again went to Satyam’s room. “He was not there. This time, I got scared and nervous. I told the other roommates who are from different nationalities and we all searched for him all over the campus. We informed the emergency service guards of the university around 6pm who then informed the police. The search for Satyam had started from Saturday,” Nitish said.

On Sunday, the French police scanned Nitish’s room and took away Satyam’s camera and other belongings.

Satyam’s father Dinkar Kumar said they smelt a rat when Satyam did not call or SMS for two days.

“He used to call everyday. If not call, he would SMS. If he had to go somewhere for a couple of days, he used to intimate. We had a talk with him on Friday morning. After that till Sunday, we never received his calls. And we got worried. Around midnight on Sunday, Rakesh, a friend of his, suddenly called us from Delhi. He enquired about Satyam as he was not coming online for days. This got us even more worried,” Dinkar Kumar said.

Satyam’s mother Sobha Devi said Satyam had told her he would be leaving for the US for a job interview in February.

“He was so happy. He said that he had made a unique design of an aircraft and that he was to get a job in the US. I talked to him around 10-12 days ago. How could this have happened? It can’t happen,” she said, breaking down.