Bhubaneswar: A team of three police personnel on Monday left for Calcutta to gather more information on the second-year MBBS student of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Suhail Aijaz Kataria, who had gone missing.
The mobile phone of Suhail hailing from Kashmir's Kupwara district was last traced in Calcutta on February 10 after he left his hostel the previous day telling his friend to attend a wedding in Chandigarh.
Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said the officials would meet their counterparts in Bengal. "The team will also try to find CCTV footage at Howrah railway station and other areas. We are also in touch with the other state police to trace him," said Bhoi.
On the other hand, the AIIMS authorities on Monday intimated the matter with the Union health ministry.
Preliminary investigation has found that the student had failed in physiology and anatomy courses in the first year exam. He, however, later cleared both the subjects in the supplementary examination. The AIIMS authorities said the student seemed to be under no pressure. The police had, during inspection of his room, found a letter addressed to his parent and friend. He has written in it: "I Quit." The cops had suspected the youth of writing the letter because of academic pressure.
"A student fest was organised on the campus a week prior to his missing. He had played an active role in the fest. He had even recited two shayaris in an event during the fest to keep the audience engaged. Several first-year students, including Suhail, had not done in examinations and subsequently cleared the papers in the supplementary examination. We have also been counselling the students not doing well in examinations," said a faculty member of the AIIMS.
Suhail's father Aijaz Ahmad Kataria on Monday appealed his son to come back. "I appeal to him to come back and I will have no objection if he wants to quit MBBS. But, he shouldn't take any drastic step which would give his family members a grief of lifetime," he appealed through media.
Kataria, a schoolteacher, is still in Bhubaneswar in the hope of Suhail's return.
