4/7/2003 10:15:23 AM

An international search involving Interpol has been launched to locate a London-based wealthy Indian family that has gone missing for the past six weeks with the police expressing apprehension that they might have been kidnapped by a smugglers gang. Amarjit Chohan (46), a well-known figure in the Asian community in Southall, west London, his wife Nancy (25), their two sons and his mother-in-law vanished from their home in Heston, west London on February 16. Chohan owns a fruit and vegetable import and distribution company called CIBA with a £ 5 million turnover a year. Nancy’s brother Onkar Verma, who lives in New Zealand, first raised the alarm when his sister stopped calling him. The police alerted Interpol and asked forces across Europe and India to be alert for anyone matching the Chohans’ descriptions crossing borders. The police investigating the firm’s operations fear that it was used by criminals engaged in smuggling of ‘khat’ into the USA. Detective Inspector Andy Rowell said: “We do not know if there is any foul play involved. They could have just disappeared, been forced to disappear or been made to look like they disappeared, we really do not know. There are, however, circumstances which we believe are suspicious.”