Student from India vanished in B.C. on day he paid $4000 cash fee Special

Sahil Sharma, a information technology student from India going to college in Surrey, B.C. paid $4,000 cash in school fees on Nov. 13, 2008. He logged off his school computer at 6:18 p.m. No one has seen him since. We talk to his uncle about the mystery.

SURREY, B.C. – Mystery still surrounds the disappearance one year ago of a student from India but his family is wondering if the $4,000 in cash that he paid to his university could have motivated someone to kidnap him. Sahil Sharma, 20, was an information technology degree student at Kwantlen College who disappeared on the same day he counted out $4,000 in cash to pay for his fees. Abhinandan Sharma, the missing student’s uncle, said Sahil counted out the money in front of his new friend known as “Mickey” and has no idea if anyone else saw him with that much cash. Later in the day, Sharma, 20, logged off his computer at school and left. He has not been seen since. That was on Nov. 13, 2008 – a year ago today. Sharma said in an interview that his nephew had gone to India to see his parents who live in Punjab and had come back to Canada with cash to pay for his fees. “There are so many possibilities – he could have been mistaken for someone else and been hurt – but our child was not the type to get mixed up with anything bad, “said Sharma. “He was my brother’s son; he was like a son to me. He had been here for two years and he was pursuing his information technology degree.” “On that day he deposited his fees at the school – he had a friend who he had recently met, and he was with him when the fees were paid. He paid cash. It was $4,000. So there is evidence that the money was deposited into the school account,” he said. “Indian people deal with cash payments quite often, when he went to India a month before, his parents had given him the cash for his fees.” The friend, a youth identified as Mickey, told the family he was present when the cash was paid to the school. Mickey has no idea where his buddy went either. There was no more cash on Sharma and his bank account has not been touched since he disappeared. “He was in school all day and his teacher told us that he logged off the computer at 6:18 in the evening,” said the uncle. “After that what happened to him, we don’t know.” “I want to say to the public, if you know anything, know where he is, please tell us so he can come back home,” said Sharma. Following the disappearance, the student’s parents came to Surrey and spent days looking for their eldest son. Their younger son is with them in India. They plastered wanted posters, traveled around B.C. looking for their son and finally returned to India heart-broken. Surrey RCMP also joined in a fresh appeal for information about the whereabouts of the Indian student who was here on a student visa. “With his tuition already paid for and having settled in with extended family, everything was in place for a positive future,” said Surrey RCMP spokesman Sgt. Roger Morrow. “Unlike many of the over 2,000 missing person reported to the Surrey RCMP in a given year period, Sahil SHARMA was not reported to have any drug nor alcohol addictions nor had he been reported missing in the past.” “Our investigation to date has unfortunately come to no avail,” said Morrow. “Extensive interviews with family, friends, and other associates have been done along with checks into financial, medical, and travel records. All avenues of investigation, including those which were even remotely possible, have been examined,” Morrow added. “By appealing again for public assistance, we are hoping new information will surface so that the family is afforded some closure on his disappearance.” Sharma was 20, was 5’ 6” tall, he was Indian, and had black hair and brown eyes with a slight beard. Anyone with any information as to the whereabouts of Sahil Sharma is asked to call the Surrey RCMP Detachment at (604) 599-0502.