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Indian woman travels to Dubai with son in search of husband missing for over 3 years
In July 2021, the woman received a mysterious message from her husband's Facebook account that said he had lost his phone
Komal and Aayush Parmar. Photos: Mazhar Farooqui and supplied
An Indian woman has flown to Dubai with her son in a desperate attempt to locate her husband, who has been missing for more than three years now. Sanjay Motilal Parmar, the father of two grown-up sons, worked as a construction worker in Sharjah before he disappeared without a trace.
Sanjay, 53, from Vadodara in Gujarat, last contacted his family in March 2021. After several weeks of silence, his family filed a missing person report with UAE authorities through the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Despite multiple attempts and follow-ups, there has been no headway in the case.
Komal, Sanjay's wife, and their 20-year-old son Aayush reached Dubai last week, hoping to find clues about his whereabouts. "We have hit a dead end, and are running out of money fast," Komal said tearfully in an interview with Khaleej Times on Tuesday.
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"We’ve borrowed from friends just to stay in a hotel. We’ve spent everything we had searching for him, and we need answers. How can a man suddenly disappear?"
Aayush, who is studying electrical engineering, is hopeful. "We have spoken to immigration officials, and they have confirmed that he hasn’t left the country. The Indian Consulate also told us he isn’t in jail but has been reported missing by his sponsor," he explained. "I’m confident we’ll find him. We have to."
Sanjay had entered the UAE on a visit visa in March 2020 and was employed in Sharjah before his disappearance.
Sanjay Motilal Parmar
Komal recalled how her husband regularly called them, often twice a day. "He never missed a day. He would call to check on us, to ensure we were okay. Even when things were tough, he would send money whenever he could. I knew something was wrong when he stopped calling and I didn't hear from him even on Aayush's 17th birthday."
Mysterious Facebook message
On July 8, 2021, Komal received a brief message from Sanjay’s Facebook account. Written in his native Gujarati, it said he had lost his phone. "It was odd. He had never used Facebook Messenger to contact me before. I immediately replied and tried calling on the messenger, but I never heard back," Komal recounted. "That’s not like him at all. He always made sure we could reach him. None of these makes sense."
Since then, there has been no activity on Sanjay’s Facebook account. He has no other digital presence, leaving the family with more unanswered questions.
The mother and son have sought help from the local Gujarati community in the UAE, circulating Sanjay's photo in WhatsApp groups in the hope that someone might recognise him. However, their efforts have so far yielded no leads. "We’ve done everything we can think of. We’ve contacted community groups and talked to people."
The family has also approached local political leaders in India to press the issue further. "Our Member of Parliament (MP) even wrote to the embassy, but every response is the same. It feels like we're stuck in a loop."
The last official communication they received from the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi came on August 13, confirming that Sanjay is still in the UAE, has no legal cases against him, and was reported as "absconding" by his employer in Sharjah.
As their search continues with no resolution in sight, the Parmar family is struggling financially and emotionally. "We’re hanging in by a thread," Komal said. "I don’t care what it takes—I just want to know what happened to him. We need to know if he's alive."
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