London, Aug 20: Five players from an Indian women’s cricket team on tour in England have disappeared in an alleged plot to dodge immigration controls. The women, all in their early twenties, went missing from two houses in Hounslow where they were staying with eight other players. The Jalandhar club team members arrived here on August 10 on a three-week visa with a full schedule of matches as part of the Colwall Cricket Club’s annual Women’s Cricket Week. They only played twice in Worcestershire before the five disappeared on August 12, when they were due to spend a free day in London. One of them was seen carrying a suitcase and getting into a car with two men at around 5 pm. The other four told teammates they were going to visit the other house but were never seen again. Their passports were found at the Hounslow addresses where they were staying. The fact that each of them had carrier bags with their personal belongings indicates that this was a preplanned act. But detective inspector Brent Lancaster, who is heading the investigation to trace these women, stressed that the main concern is their safety. “At this stage, we believe that these women may have gone off on a preplanned adventure — after all, they are on holiday,” he said.“We want them to know that they haven’t broken any laws, but because they did not tell anyone where they are, we need them to make contact with us,” he added or one of their friends on the cricket team to let everyone know they are OK. I must stress that they are not in any trouble, we just need to know if they are safe,” he added. The five have been identified as Mandeep Virk, 19, Baljeet Kaur, 22, Parvesh Rani, 25, Ekta Andotra, 21, and Rajwant Kaur, 24. A missing persons inquiry was launched after another member of the team reported that some of her teammates had disappeared.
Sergeant Vince Harte from Hounslow’s missing persons unit said: “There was talk of this mysterious man appearing and the girls going off with him but after enquiries it appears they knew him and it may have been all prearranged.”