Techie on way home with friend vanishes into the blue

Riding pillion on colleague's bike on a rainy evening, 26-year-oldu00a0 gets off when vehicle stalls on canal-side road, is never seen again

Hardik Mukesh Makwana (26), a software engineer working with an IT company in Lulla Nagar, disappeared without a trace on the night of June 3 from Wanawadi while on his way home with a friend. Makwana and his friend were returning home in Kharadi by the canal-side road at Jambhulkarmala instead of the Pune-Solapur road, which was choked because of heavy rain.

Makwana's friend Chirayu Kaushik Taylor (30), also a software engineer working in the same company, lodged the missing report at the Wanawadi police station. The six-feet-tall, well built Makwana was wearing a green T-shirt, light orange trousers and black shoes when he went missing. A native of Gujarat, he had been working with the IT company in the city the last few months.

The police said Makwana resided at Spring Fields in Kharadi, while Taylor was a resident of Ganesh Nagar in Wadgaon Sheri. "Hardik Makwana and Chirayu Taylor had left their company around 7 pm on June 3 and were going towards Wanawadi on a bike," Police Sub-Inspector M S Phunde said. "The Pune-Solapur road was jammed because of heavy rain, and to avoid this the duo took the shortcut from Jambhulkarmala."

Bike gets stuck
The officer said Taylor was riding the bike when it got stuck on an escalation of the canal-side road. "Taylor asked Makwana to get off and walk a few metres upwards. Taylor, meanwhile, crossed the escalated part of the roadu00a0-- about 100 metresu00a0-- and was waiting for Makwana to catch up. Taylor thought that Makwana was walking up, but he did not come for a long time," Phunde said. "Taylor then looked for him in the vicinity, and called Makwana several times on his mobile, but it wasn't reachable. Later Taylor decided to file a missing report."u00a0 The police launched a search for Makwana, which remains on even as they investigate all possible angles. "People in Jambhulkarmala were also questioned, but so far there is no clue on the missing engineer," Phunde said.