Search Operations Stepped up to Trace Missing Scientist

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that intelligence officials, aided by security personnel, have intensified the search operations to trace Loknath Mahalingam, the missing scientist of the Kaiga nuclear plant in Karnataka

“We don’t know under what circumstances he went missing. Intelligence officials have intensified the search,” he told reporters in Chennai, as disappearance of Mahalingam continues to be a mystery.

The minister said that the circumstances under which the scientist went missing are unknown to the Centre, and urged his family members to share information about him.

A scientific officer in the Kaiga generating station of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL), Mahalingam went on his routine morning walk in the project township on June 8 and has not returned since.

NPCIL authorities said yesterday that Mahalingam did not have any access to sensitive documents and dismissed fears that he was involved in any strategic programme. Mahalingam had earlier worked with Madras Atomic Power Project (MAPP) in Kalpakkam near Chennai.

CRPF personnel and local police had launched a hunt to trace Mahalingam after his wife Sundari lodged a complaint with the Kaiga police.

According to officials, this is the second time that Mahalingam has gone missing. Earlier while working at Kalpakkam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, he was reported missing for a few days but returned home later.