Mukesh Jaiswal

Calcutta, March 24: A young businessman who co-owned a popular restaurant group with three friends and was missing since Sunday has been found dead on the northern fringes of the city.

The body of Mukesh Jaiswal, one of the four directors of Kaafila restaurant at City Centre in Salt Lake and its newly opened branch on Theatre Road, was found next to a ditch near BT College in Barrackpore yesterday and identified by a cousin this afternoon.

Mukesh, 30, had been missing since leaving City Centre on Sunday. Family members said he had gone there with wife Pooja, 27, and the couple’s one-and-a-half-month-old son Yuvraj and spent some time at Kaafila before leaving alone for the Theatre Road branch.

“As far as I know, he set off for Theatre Road in a taxi around 7.30pm. He left his Skoda Octavia behind for his wife and son to return home,” said Ravindra Jaiswal, identifying himself as Mukesh’s partner in the City Centre garments store Dare to Wear.

Sonu Jaiswal, a relative of Mukesh, filed a general diary with Bidhannagar North police station on Sunday night after the businessman’s wife called him to say that her husband hadn’t reached the Theatre Road outlet.

Mukesh’s body was found in Barrackpore around 7.45am the next day, but could not be identified till today afternoon. Officers at Airport police station said they were unable to identify the body as that of the missing Mukesh because nothing except his clothes were found on him. “We learnt later from his family members that he was wearing two gold chains, a diamond-studded bracelet and rings with precious stones. All of these were missing along with his wallet,” an investigator said.

Bikaas Jaiswal, a cousin of Mukesh, received a call from CID Bhavan in Bhowanipore around noon today, asking him and Sonu to visit the office to take a look at a picture of the body found in Barrackpore. Once Bikaas confirmed that it was Mukesh, he and Sonu were asked to go to RG Kar Medical Hospital to claim the body. The post-mortem was over by then.

“How could the police send an unidentified body for post-mortem without confirming whether it was that of a person who had been reported missing?” Bikaas asked.

Kaafila, meaning caravan, opened in City Centre in October 2006. Owned by Vanijya Pvt Ltd (formerly VAMA Enterprises) — comprising friends Vivek, Avishek, Mukesh and Anil Jaiswal — the 2,500sqft address serves Northwest Frontier cuisine.

Kaafila Express, a 45-seater dhaba-restaurant, opened on Theatre Road only last week. The Jaiswal friends were planning to take the Afghani food brand to Nagpur, Raipur and Siliguri.

During the opening of Kaafila Express, it was made clear that Mukesh’s name should not be mentioned as a co-owner of the new property — an indication that all was not right among the partners.

“I met him last on Sunday evening. The police informed us about the tragedy today afternoon,” Vivek said.