Dubai: An Indian expat, who could not fly home for his planned vacation and was paranoid about coronavirus developments, has been missing since Tuesday April 28, his relatives and colleagues said on Saturday.
A missing person’s report has been filed with Naif Police station after Sreedharan Devakumar, 54, Deira resident and brother-in-law of Congress leader in Kerala, Bindu Krishna, went missing after leaving his mobile phones, wallet, car key, watch and ring at his shared accommodation, friends said.
A supervisor with the limousine division of a car rental company in Dubai, Devakumar had been worried about various issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“He used to be glued to the news channels and get worried after reading reports all the time while he stayed home for three weeks during the sterlisation period in Dubai,” his nephew Sreekanth said.
He said Devakumar was also depressed about an imminent salary cut and that he could not fly home as planned during his two school-going children’s vacation back home.
“He had booked the ticket for April 23, his wife told me,” said Sreekanth.
Another relative, Padmakumar, said Devakumar was worried about contracting the virus also. “Apparently he got himself tested and told his roommates on Saturday that he had tested negative.”
However, a colleague said Devakumar had gone to Rashid Hospital in the early hours of Saturday after he developed chest pain and returned home within hours.
“He was okay and had promised to come to work the next day. But he didn’t.”
On Sunday night Devakumar had left home and was found by his roommates only on Monday morning, he said.
“They said he behaved normal after that. So, they thought he was fine.”
However, he went missing again early morning on Tuesday. “When one of the other two roommates woke up around 3am, he had seen him on the bed. But, when the second roommate woke up at 5am, he was not there. They thought he might have gone for his regular morning walk.”
Since Devakumar did not return after hours, the roommates informed his company, who have filed a missing person’s report with police.
The colleague said the roommates later found high-doses of anti-depressant medicines among Devakumar’s personal belongings. “They had no knowledge about it. They would have been more careful had they known about it,” he said.
Shine Sukumaran, who has been helping the missing man’s family to coordinate with various sources to trace him, said searches for him in hospitals, isolation centres and even the mortuary did not yield any results.
“We hope that Dubai Police will be able to find him safe and sound soon. We urge the public to report to the police if they see him,” he added.
Gulf News could not immediately get a comment from Dubai Police.
