Vizag chef goes missing in China, kin lose contact

By SNV Sudhir 

Visakhapatnam, June 17, 2013: A 26-year-old man from Allipuram in the city has gone missing in China, and his family here has lost contact with him since a few months.

Kannuru Venkatesh, a graduate in hotel management, had gone to Shanghai to work as a chef in a hotel in April 2011. He came home for a two month vacation in October 2012 and left for China again in December 2012.

“He left in December, and was in touch with us on the phone every weekend. The last time I spoke to him was on January 5. After that his phone used to ring but no one answered till February. Later on, his mobile became ‘unreachable’,” said a weeping Kanaka Maha Lakshmi, Venkatesh’s sister.

The family also inquired with Venkatesh’s friends here whether he was in touch with them. But his friends told them that they met him last when he was in Vizag in December, and after that had lost contact.

“His birthday was on June 13, and we called him. But his phone was not reachable. My daughter sent many emails. There is no response from him. His mother is devastated, and has stopped eating since a week. He never gave us details about his work,” Venkatesh’s father Rama Rao Rao told this correspondent

Rao also said Venkatesh was a hard worker and underwent training as a chef at food and craft institute in the city after which he worked in many hotels in city and Mumbai for almost 4 years. Later he wanted to test his fortunes abroad. Initially he tried going to Australia. And as his plans to go to Australia didn’t materialize he shifted his focus to China. 

Rao added that his son wanted to settle in Vizag after earning some good fortune abroad and ensure a comfortable living to their lower middle class family.

“We have sent the details of Venkatesh to the GAD at the Secretariat requesting them to approach the Ministry of External Affairs office in Hyderabad. We have only his passport number, email IDs and mobile number. They don’t know in which area of China he is living and the hotel he was working in. I think we can track him in a week,” collector V. Seshadri said.

The family started worrying after a website reported that one Venkatesh died in a quake in China last week.