Santo Domingo: Federal agencies in the US have launched a search for 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki, an Indian student of the University of Pittsburgh, who went missing while vacationing with friends in the Dominican Republic. Despite her father’s request, the police have not started a criminal investigation in the matter though.
Sudiksha had put up at the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with five female friends. On the night of March 5, all six, along with two men, were seen going towards the beach. Later, CCTV cameras picked up a group of six returning from the beach. Sudiksha was not in the group. She had apparently stayed behind with a man, later identified as Joshua Riibe.
On the morning of March 6, Riibe walked back from the beach alone. Authorities claimed that they found Sudiksha’s clothes on a beach bed. On being questioned, Riibe allegedly told the police that the two of them went swimming late in the night and were thrown apart by a huge wave. He apparently landed on the beach, threw up and then collapsed on a beach bed. When he woke up in the morning, Sudiksha was nowhere to be seen.
The police have said that they are not treating Riibe as a suspect, but have questioned him as he was the last person to see the girl. Sudiksha’s father wants the police to probe kidnapping and human trafficking angles.
Authorities have also come to know that Sudiksha paid money through two Venmo transactions on the afternoon of March 5. One of the transactions had an emoji of a sailboat in the description, The US Sun reported. The second payment was made to Coco Bongo, a well-known nightclub in Cancun. The amounts paid are not known though.
Sudiksha’s father has said that she is a very ambitious girl and wishes to study medicine.
