Shillong, May 26 (IANS) Meghalaya Police continued their hectic search for the second day on Monday to locate a tourist couple from Indore, who have been reported missing for the past more than 24 hours while visiting the state’s Sohra (Cherrapunji), a tourist hotspot in the northeast region, officials said.

A senior police official said that 29-year-old Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, residents of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, who have been touring Meghalaya, went missing from Sohra (Cherrapunji) on Sunday in the East Khasi Hills district. The couple hired a two-wheeler and visited the picturesque Sohra area before their disappearance, the official said.

Their hired two-wheeler was found abandoned near Sohra Rim, 15 km away from Sohra town. The couple’s mobile phones have been switched off since Sunday night.

“We are continuing a hectic search to locate the missing couple,” the police official said. He said that after getting missing information from Govind Raghuvanshi, brother of Raja Raghuvanshi and multiple other sources, the police launched the massive search operation. The police are trying to trace the missing couple and ascertain the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, he stated. Govind Raghuvanshi has issued a public appeal to share information about the whereabouts of the missing duo.

Meanwhile, police last month found the decomposed body of a Hungarian tourist, identified as Zsolt Puskas, who had been missing since March 29. The body was recovered from a forest at Ramdait village in the East Khasi Hills district.

The Hungarian Embassy in New Delhi lodged a missing complaint on March 29, and an FIR was registered four days later, following which the massive search operation was launched by the police along with local villagers and members of social organisations. Police and the villagers suspected that he could have fallen from the hilltop, leading to his death, as the body was found on a steep slope on April 10.

–IANS

sc/uk