No trace of missing basketball coach yet

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Jan 13:

Five days after he went missing, Commissionerate Police is yet to trace former international basketball coach Gagan Mani Tripathy (61).

Inspector-in-charge of Infocity police station Bijayini Singh said, “The police are facing difficulties in tracing Tripathy as he did not carry his mobile phone with him.”

“As we got to know that the coach has high BP and was in mental stress, we have searched for him at hospitals, railways stations, bus stands and hotels in the city but failed to trace him,” she said.

“We have sent all details of the coach with the missing report to all police stations in state on January 9 night after getting a complaint report in this regard so that anybody who finds him will immediately contact the nearest police station,” the IIC said.

“The investigation is continuing and till now we have searched for him in Berhampur and Rourkela where he has relatives,” Ms Singh said.

“Today one of our teams visited Puri to see if could have visited the Jagannath temple. But till now, we haven’t got any positive results,” Singh said, adding, “We are investigating all possible angles to find out the exact reason for the retired coach going missing and hope to get a lead soon which may help trace him.”

On the other hand, Tripathy’s family members have claimed that they had lodged a complaint at Infocity police station on January 9 saying Tripathy had remained untraceable since he left his residence in Patia early that morning for his customary morning walk.

Talking to media persons here on Sunday, Gagan’s wife Meera said her husband owed some money to some betel and tea shops near her residence and suspected that he could have been kidnapped by them. She said the family members have contacted their relatives living at Berhampur, Rourkela and even Pune, where her one of her daughters stays, but have failed to get any information on her husband.

His daughter Tanuja said that her family members had full faith on the police and hoped they would be able to trace her father soon.

Tripathy was staying with his wife and younger daughter at his Patia residence (plot no-544) here since two months. He retired as the basketball coach from Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) on July 7 last year.

He had played both at the junior and senior levels for the Indian basketball team from the year 1975 to 1980, family sources said.

It is to be noted that Tripathy is the second person in the city to go missing and remain untraced, after Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) officer Ibrahim Sharif, who went missing on November 25.