Indian-origin millionaire found dead in US after being abducted

WASHINGTON: Tushar Atre, an Indian-origin tech millionaire, was found dead in his girlfriend’s car hours after the owner of a digital marketing company in the US was allegedly abducted from his California home, according to media reports.

Atre, 50, owner of Atrenet Inc, a web design company that caters to Silicon Valley corporate businesses, was inside his home Tuesday morning with several other people when multiple suspects broke into his house and abducted him in his girlfriend’s white BMW, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Hours after authorities began searching for Atre, police reported finding a BMW stolen from his house and a body near the vehicle.

The investigation took officials to a property in a mountainous, heavily wooded area where they found the white BMW and Atre’s body. “We are looking into all aspects of his life,” said Sgt Brian Cleveland, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office.

“All doors are open.” Investigators don’t know the suspects’ relationship with Atre. But authorities “have reason to believe the motive was robbery,” according to the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook post. Khan’s comments came a day after leaders of the Abdullahs’ National Conference and Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu said that the administration had ended restrictions on their movement.

Jammu divisional commissioner Sanjeev Verma insisted that these leaders were never detained and were free to participate in political activities. “We never restrained them... They were under self-imposed restriction,” news agency Press Trust of India quoted Verma as saying.

The home ministry officials cited above linked the release of detained political activists to the Block Development Council (BDC) elections being held in J&K on October 21.

Congress leader Ghulam Ahmed Mir on Monday opposed the BDC polls that are being held on party lines, wondering how the elections could be held when top politicians remained under detention. Strengthening of grassroots democratic institutions is one of the key plans of the Union home ministry in J&K. Panchayat members and heads will elect BDC chairpersons in the elections on October 24.

Panchayat elections were held in J&K in November and December last year and 26,639 panches and 3,652 sarpanches were elected. Detained political activists in places like Srinagar and Kulgam are unlikely to be released as Panchyat elections were not held there, the officials said. The issue of the release of detained political activists and relaxations in restrictions on telecom connectivity is being reviewed daily at various levels including at the Union home ministry, one of the officials cited above said.

A lockdown and communication blackout was also imposed in Kashmir in August to prevent protests against changes to J&K’S constitutional status and reorganisation. Landline phones have since been restored while mobile phone connectivity has been made partly functional.

Major Genral Ajay Das (retd), who has served in Jammu and Kashmir for several years, said: “The areas of concern include incitement of violence by external players like Pakistan and those by political elite who have lost out because of the new arrangement. The calibrated restoration of communication and release of political activists are a welcome move to handle the situation.” The US administration and companies say some of India’s regulatory changes in recent years favour domestic firms over foreign ones, and have soured investment plans of American companies.

In February, India’s new investment rules for the e-commerce sector jolted Amazon.com Inc and Walmart’s Flipkart as the companies were forced to change their business structures to continue to operate in the country.

The rules were aimed at protecting India’s brick-and-mortar retailers by deterring big online retailers from giving steep discounts to attract shoppers.

Goyal defended India’s decision, reiterating that the government cannot let “small traders die” and that he had urged e-commerce companies to follow all the rules.

In an interview with Reuters, Ross said the rules had slowed the expansion of Amazon and Walmart in India, calling it an “unfortunate consequence”

. He defended the e-commerce companies after Goyal’s remarks.

“Amazon and the other e-commerce companies didn’t get to be the world’s biggest by any evil mechanism. They got there because they are extremely efficient,” Ross said.

The US has been highlighting its rather minuscule trade deficit of $16.9 billion with India, stressing it as much as the country does about its trade deficit of $419 billion with China, which has resulted in a trade war.

The US commerce secretary clarified that the Trump administration is concerned about the trade deficit relating to artificial and protectionist barriers.

Ross said while he is aware of the difference in degree of the trade deficit the US has with China and India, it does not mean the US should not be dealing with unfair practices with other countries even if they result in smaller trade deficits.

“Most of the things we are requesting from India would not only help US, a lot of these would also help India itself. India for example has a wonderful opportunity right now to take advantage of trade dissension elsewhere,” he added.

Ross said that in his closeddoor bilateral meeting with minister Goyal, he would share a chart on the areas where China is a big exporter to the US and the possible ways India can take advantage of it in changing that mixture.

“We are not just focusing on deficit. We are focusing also on total trade,” he added.

Quoting media reports, Ross said Amazon was planning to invest one-third of what it invested a year before in capex in India this year.