Panic as missing woman's cellphone locates her near red light area

Since January 5 a 23yearold software engineer from Hyderabad who had arrived in Mumbai to resume work after her Christmas break has been missing When cops started tracing her cell phone number it showed up in a location close to the cityrsquos prominent redlight area Kamathipura sending local cops into a tizzy and causing panic among her family The cops have now launched a massive hunt for the young womanEsther Anuhya who works as a software engineer for Tata Consultancy Services TCS in Goregaon had boarded Vishakhapatnam Express at 730 am on January 4 to return to the city and resume work after a monthlong Christmas vacation ldquoOn the same day at around 9 pm Esther spoke with her father and told him that she was fine and had reached SolapurEsther spent the last month at home in Hyderabad where she had gone to celebrate Christmas She put up this photo on Facebook on December 16Nobody had imagined that her journey would take such a tragic turn We have spoken to all her friends and colleagues but there is no trace of her I hope my niece is saferdquo said Estherrsquos uncle Arun Kumar who stays in Nerul Navi Mumbai The police said that on January 6 Estherrsquos father Jonathan Anuhya called up Esther to know her whereabouts but his daughter did not receive the call He waited for a while certain that Esther would call him back By afternoon he had started worrying and called up his brother Arun Kumar and asked him to look for herldquoEsther has two numbers and we were constantly trying to get her on both All the calls went unanswered and after a while the phone appeared to have been switched off I rushed to the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus LTT and found that the train had arrived long ago I tried to check with some of the passengers and finally approached the Kurla GRP for helpThe GRP asked me to register a complaint with Vijaywada police station in Hyderabad from where Esther had boarded the train I called up Jonathan Anuhya and instructed him to lodge a complaint with the local police thererdquo Arun Kumar said A case was registered with Vijaywada police station after which the cops there wrote an official letter transferring the complaint to Kurla GRP in the cityThe cops started investigating the case by questioning some of Estherrsquos copassengers and found that she had alighted at LTT An officer from Kurla GRP who is part of the investigating team said ldquoWe have checked the CCTV footage at the terminus but were unable to locate Esther in the crowd of passengers Two SMSes were sent on her cell phone to find out her location in the city of which one was transmitted to her phone through Bhandup East The second was diverted via a mobile tower near KamathipurardquoldquoWe are not taking any chances and have alerted our informers and have been checking the redlight areas to get leads in the caserdquo said a police officer without revealing his name In Mumbai Esther was accommodated at the YWCA hostel in Andheri West The investigators have spoken to Estherrsquos roommate Abhilasha who told them that Esther was shy and introverted and that they had shared a very formal relationship The two have not spoken since Esther went on leaveAnuhya arrived in the city on January 6 and has been helping the cops with their search along with Arun Kumar ldquoI have lodged a complaint with the cops We are hopeful that they will find my daughter soonrdquo said Anuhya When contacted a TCS spokesperson said ldquoTCS is extending all its support to the family This is an issue we are very concerned about as an organisationrdquo With inputs from Vinod Kumar Menon