Search on again for missing sisters

It is one of Fiji’s most haunting mysteries and police are now considering reopening the case of three teenage girls who disappeared while out on a picnic trip.

Ashika Sherin Lata, 19, Renuka Roshni Lata, 18, and Radhika Roshni Lata, 17, disappeared on June 26, 2005, while out on a picnic trip to Malake Island, Rakiraki, with local man Dip Chand.

Chand told police that he was attacked by strangers and the girls taken. He was later arrested over the incident and served several years in jail. But several charges against him are believed to have been dropped.

Now, the Fiji police is considering reopening its investigation into the disappearance of the sisters, the head of Human Trafficking Unit, Inspector Aminiasi Cula said.

He said they suspected the three girls who went missing could have been victims of human trafficking.

"We have been receiving a lot of information on the case recently. The information is coming in," Mr Cula said.

He said clauses 111 to 120 of the Crimes Decree, which has provisions for human trafficking-related offences, came into force in 2009, four years after the girls went missing.

"Under the Crimes Decree, we now have provisions to investigate human trafficking-related offences and lay charges."

Mr Cula urged members of the public with any information on the sisters to visit the police.
Earlier this week, the news of re-investigation was welcomed by the family of the missing girls.

Vijendra Kumar, the father of the missing girls, said he never lost hope and was happy with the news.

"I am 100 per cent sure that I will meet my daughters one day," Mr Kumar told the Fiji Times.

He said he and his wife were waiting for their daughters.

"Everything is the same here. We have not heard anything about my girls lately."

He assured police of his support in their investigations. "Let the police do their job. The rest is on God."