Sukh Ram Returns To London After Brief Visit To Us

Sukh Ram flew from London to New York accompanied by his wife Ram Devi on August 12, but returned to London on August 16. He flew on Air India's flight number 111 and occupied seats numbers 15 J and K. On the return leg, Ram and his wife took Air India's flight 112.

Official sources said there was no further record of Sukh Ram leaving London by any other flight. Sources quoting airline officials said the former minister had neither mentioned a heart ailment nor did he show any signs of any problems while on board, indicating that he must have been in good health.

Ram did not make any onward reservations while in New York. In the booking reference, he gave a New York phone number as the point of contact. This means that during the four days he stayed in the US, he had remained in New York. Some reports had said Ram is in Houston, Texas, undergoing a medical checkup in connection with the heart bypass surgery he had undergone last year.

Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) officials in the US refused to either confirm or deny that Sukh Ram had entered the US. "Revealing such information would be a breach of privacy," an INS official told Business Standard.

Strangely, the Indian government and the CBI, which could get the INS information through official channels, have yet to formally request assistance in locating Sukh Ram from either the Clinton administration or the Indian missions in the US.

"We have not received any request for help from the Indian government," a State Department official said.

In Houston, Indian consul-general Swash Pawan Singh said he had not received any official query to try and locate Sukh Ram. "Until I receive such instructions, we cannot make any efforts to locate him," he said.

A message was sent on Tuesday evening to the Indian embassy in Washington to "find out if Sukh Ram is in the US". However, officials at the Indian mission said they had not received any messages from India to trace the former telecom minister.

INS records would be the most accurate indicator of whether Sukh Ram entered the US. If he did come to the country. INS would be able to provide his date and port of entry to Indian investigators. The immigration information would also include a visitor's reason to enter the US.

The former telecom minister, who had reportedly gone abroad for medical treatment, was not listed as a patient at either John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore or at several medical facilities in Houston. Neither was he listed as a guest at the Taj Group's Lexington hotel in New York.

Source say that Ram had booked the airline tickets through a London travel agent. The return leg bookings were for two days, August 16 and 17. A day before journey, the booking of August 17 was cancelled.

This means that Ram had made careful travel plans and did not return to London in a hurry after hearing about the raids in Delhi and his home town Mandi which started on the evening of August 15 and went on till August 17.