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Exide CMD Ganguly's disappearance rattles corporate Calcutta

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

Satyabrata Ganguly, chairman and managing director of Exide Industries, has been missing since Friday morning. The police, despite a massive search operation, are still clueless.

Ganguly set out from his home in Calcutta's posh Alipore area at around 4.45am IST for his morning walk at the Agri-Horticulture Society Gardens. He usually returns home by 6.30am for a massage.

When he did not return till 8.30am, his son-in-law reported the matter to the police.

Calcutta Police Commissioner D C Vajpai said, "We are keeping our fingers crossed." He did not rule out abduction of the top executive of the Rs5.65 billion company.

The state administration got cracking immediately. All border check-posts have been alerted. Both Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and Home Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya are being kept informed of developments.

According to Basu, "The police is investigating the matter. There are some court cases regarding his company. That is also been looked into. The police has also spoken to his wife."

The West Bengal government held a high-level meeting, chaired by Bhattacharya, at Writers' Buildings on Saturday afternoon to discuss the case.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Monish Gupta, Home Secretary S N Roy, and Commissioner Vajpai.

An FIR (first information report) was lodged at the Alipore police station this afternoon.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (detective department) Narayan Ghosh said police would question senior Exide executives on Monday. Though he did not rule out the possibility of kidnapping, he felt it was unlikely that mafia gangsters were behind the incident.

The apprehension of kidnapping comes against the backdrop of several kidnappings of businessmen in the city and the shifting of base by some dreaded gangs from other states to Calcutta.

It is also thought that a Bombay-based gang may be responsible as Exide is now owned by Bombay real-estate tycoon Rajan Raheja.

But some other officers ruled out abduction because no ransom has been demanded nor has any telephone call claiming responsibility for the disappearance reached the Ganguly household.

The police interrogated a former senior executive of Exide against whom a case of embezzlement of funds is pending. Ganguly is a prime witness in the case.

Ganguly's wife, who returned last night, said they were supposed to go to Kathmandu, Nepal, for a holiday.

According to Purnendu Roychowdhury, his son-in-law, "We are not sure whether he entered the garden for his morning walk. One of the gate-keepers said he was wearing blue shorts while another said he was wearing white."

In the absence of his wife, Roychowdhury informed Ganguly's brother, Subrata Ganguly, who is also a well-known professional and vice-chairman of ACC and chairman of electronics firm Webel.

Subrata Ganguly informed the Alipore police station on telephone, but surprisingly no formal complaint has been lodged.

Ganguly was to join his wife in Delhi on Friday and then proceed to Jaipur where their guru, Ravishankar, is based. They were supposed to attend courses on meditation called "Art of Living".

The 57-year-old Ganguly is said to be an organised and orderly man. His friends ruled out the possibility that he might have left on his own.

Said Barun Das, company secretary of Exide, "He cannot just leave like that. I don't think he has been kidnapped. Satyabratada is a very nice person and I don't think he has enemies."

Those who usually walk with Ganguly at the garden are top-notch businessmen of the city, including Sudarshan Birla. Though Exide has changed hands, Ganguly enjoyed a special relationship with the Birlas.

Ganguly, a chemical engineer, had started as a management trainee with Dunlop. In 1986, he joined Exide and led the company to healthy profits.

Businessmen in Calcutta are shocked by his disappearance. Said G P Goenka of Duncans, "He passes by my house every day during his trip to the gardens."

Like Goenka, many businessmen wondered why Ganguly should be kidnapped, but expressed fears at reports that some Uttar Pradesh-based gangs were shifting base to Calcutta and targeting businessmen.

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