Balaji Telefilms ex-COO missing in Nairobi; Ekta Kapoor requests help from Indian govt

Ex-COO of Balaji Telefilms Zulfiqar Khan has been missing in Nairobi, Kenya, since July this year.  The family members of the 48-year-old entertainment industry veteran have requested help from the Indian government to trace him. Apart from this, his friends have also started a petition for PM Narendra Modi to intervene with the Government of Kenya and bring Zulfi back, according to change.org.

The family’s entreaties to the Indian government to trace him have not yielded any result, and hence this has driven them and his friends to start an online campaign -- #BringZulfiBack -- hoping to catch the government’s attention. 

Balaji Telefilms ex-COO missing from Nairobi 

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), two Indian nationals went missing in Kenya in July and India has been in touch with the Kenyan authorities on the matter. The Indians have been identified as Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Zaid Sami Kidwai, according to MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

The industry veteran last worked with Balaji Telefilms as its Chief Operations Officer (COO), before stepping down in May this year. In July, Khan who loves to travel went on a holiday to Kenya and was due to return on July 24. His family and friends were tried to get in touch but were unable to establish contact with him.

Ekta Kapoor also penned a post requesting the government to look into the matter and help the family to find Khan. "Our ex coo of @balajitelefilmslimited disappeared from Nairobi almost three months ago I request @meaindia @kenyaredcross to kindly look into this," she wrote. 

As per Hindustan Times, the family wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian High Commission in Kenya to trace his whereabouts. One of Khan's relatives named Aquil Hussain, who is helping to trace him, told the leading media outlet, "He told us about attending a party in Kenya, along with some other Indian nationals. He left late at night with one of them in a taxi driven by a local. The next morning, the vehicle was found with all its doors open, its engine still running. There was no sign of the occupants." 

Well-known Kenyan advocate Ahmednasir Abdullahi Abdullahi got in touch with the family and filed a writ petition in the Kenyan court seeking investigation, soon after the missing Kenyan taxi driver’s family filed a police complaint.

Image: Instagram/ektarkapoor/Twitter/SunandaSaxena