Death of Vishal Mehrotra

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Vishal Mehrotra
Born27 September 1972
India
Disappeared29 July 1981 (aged 8)
Putney, South London
Body discovered25 February 1982
NationalityIndian
Parents
  • Vishambar Mehrotra (father)
  • Aruna Mehrotra (mother)

Vishal Mehrotra (27 September 1972[1] – probably after or on 29 July 1981) was an 8-year-old boy who was abducted from Putney, London on 29 July 1981.[2] Vishal's partial remains were discovered 25 February 1982 on an isolated farm in Sussex. The killers were never identified and no one has ever been charged with his murder.

Background[]

Vishal was born in India and the Mehrotra family came to the UK in 1978.[3] Vishal's father, Vishambar Mehrotra, was a solicitor at the time of the disappearance[3] and is now a retired magistrate.[4][5] Vishal's mother, Aruna Mehrotra, had separated from her husband in 1976. She still lived in India at the time of the disappearance, managing a jewellery business in Delhi.[3] The family lived on Holmbush Road, Putney, South London.[3] Vishal had a younger sister, who was named Mamta. The children also had a live-in nanny, Joannita Carvalho.[6]

Vishal was described as bright and independent, with an open, friendly personality. He travelled to his school in Queens Gate every day on his own.[3][6]

Day of the disappearance[]

29 July 1981 was the day of the wedding of Charles and Diana. Vishal, with his father, sister, and nanny, had taken the train into London, in order to watch the wedding from the window of his father's workplace. They then took the train back to East Putney, where they arrived around 1:40 PM. Vishal's father was tired and went directly home, leaving his son and daughter with their nanny. He gave each of them 20p to buy sweets.

Carvalho took the children to a newsagents, where they remained for about 20 minutes. The children had complained of sore throats, so she decided to go buy cough medicine at Putney High Street. Vishal said he was tired and wanted to walk home by himself. Carvalho consented, feeling Vishal was independent enough to make the journey. She took him across the main road pedestrian crossing and then left him to walk the rest of the way, while she took Mamta to buy the cough medicine.

Carvalho and Mamta returned home at about 3 PM. The children's father was asleep in bed, but there was no sign of Vishal. Believing Vishal had gone out to play, Carvalho and Mamta took naps until 4:30 PM. When she awoke and found Vishal had still not returned, she explained the situation to his father. The two made enquiries of neighbours to whether they had seen the boy. When they could not find Vishal by 7 PM, he was reported missing to the Putney Police.[6]

Initial investigation[]

The initial police investigation involved searching the vicinity of the disappearance from the air with a thermal camera as well as ground searches of common land and the river Thames.[3] Initially, it was thought that Vishal could have tried to travel to India, though his family doubted this, and this line of inquiry was investigated by international police.[3] Police additionally investigated the possibility that the boy had been abducted by a racist gang.[1]

Between the disappearance and the discovery of the body the police investigated hundreds of sightings and interviewed over 14,000 people.[3]

Discovery of the body[]

On 25 February 1982 two men, who were shooting pigeons, discovered a skull, seven rib bones and a section of vertebrae at Alder Copse, Durleigh Marsh Farm, Rogate, near Petersfield.[3] The bones appeared to have been disturbed by foxes and were found buried in a bog at a depth of around two feet.[3]

Following the discovery, a large scale excavation and search involving about 30 police officers took place.[3] This uncovered more bones, though no clothing was found.[3] The bones were taken to London for forensic investigation.[3] Initially, police believed that the body had been buried around 29 July 1981.[3]

Subsequent investigations[]

Police initially believed that Vishal may have been abducted by someone with local knowledge of the Durleigh Marsh Farm area.[3]

In March 2015, the BBC reported that the Metropolitan Police had referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission following allegations of corruption.[7]

In May 2015, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported that a 2005 Sussex Police review, by ex-detective Alwyn Evans, had been released to the paper following a FOI request.[2] The review mentioned Sidney Cooke a number of times and showed that Cooke had begun to be linked with abductions in the early 1980s.[2] Cooke was a fairground worker and the report revealed that there were two fairs in the area when Vishal vanished.[2] The findings were apparently not acted upon.[2] Roger Stoodley, who retired as the detective leading the Cooke gang investigation in 1992, stated that the disappearances of Vishal (and another boy Martin Allen) were in keeping with the gang's modus operandi.[8] The gang were known to have abducted boys who they found walking on their own.[8]

Operation Midland[]

Main articles: Elm Guest House claims and controversy and Operation Midland

A few months after his son's disappearance, Vishambar Mehrotra said that he had been contacted by an unidentified man thought to be in his twenties.[4] This man suggested that Vishal had been abducted, and that this event may be connected to a group of influential paedophiles associated with the Elm Guest House.[4] The man stated that he had informed the police but they had not followed up his report.[4] Vishambar gave a recording of the telephone conversation to detectives; however, they dismissed it as a prank call and it was not followed up.[4][5] The location of Vishal's disappearance was less than a mile from the Elm Guest House.[4]

Mehrotra's murder was investigated as part of Operation Midland[9] after Carl Beech told Metropolitan Police Service detectives that he had been abused by a VIP paedophile ring and he had seen them murder three boys. Beech's claims were false and it was found that he had used his work computer to search for and access newspaper articles which asked whether Mehrota's murder and Martin Allen's disappearance could be linked to the alleged paedophile ring before making the allegations.[10] In July 2019, Beech was convicted of charges related to lying to police and he was jailed for 18 years.[11]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Lee, Alfred (20 September 1981). "MISSING BOY'S MOTHER FLIES 4,000 MILES TO PRAY AT A HINDU TEMPLE". Sunday Express.
  2. ^ a b c d e Corke, Jonathan (30 May 2015). "Paedophile Sidney Cooke's potential links to murder of boy, 8, ignored by police". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Tragic end to missing boy hunt – Skeleton mystery". The Herald. 4 March 1982.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Laville, Sandra; Halliday, Josh (19 November 2014). "Paedophile ring allegations: police are failing us, murdered boy's father says". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  5. ^ a b O’Neill, Sean (19 November 2014). "Murdered boy's father says police ignored informant". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  6. ^ a b c Curd, G. H. "Full Text from the Sussex Police Report; 'Inquiry into Suspicious Death of VISHAL MEHROTRA', 1983". Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Boy's 1981 death to be probed by IPCC". BBC News. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  8. ^ a b O’Neill, David Brown, Georgie Keate and Sean (20 November 2014). "Paedophile gang 'may have killed 17 more children'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  9. ^ Grierson, Jamie (4 August 2015). "Police child abuse inquiries: Operation Yewtree to Operation Midland". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  10. ^ "Abuse accuser Carl Beech 'shown images of potential victims by BBC reporter'". BBC News. 28 July 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  11. ^ Karasz, Palko (28 July 2019). "U.K. Man Who Made Up Child Abuse Claims Is Sentenced to 18 Years". The New York Times. London. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
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