Scion of Travancore royal family abducted

CHENNAI: A suspected terror group in Senegal reportedly abducted Shreekumar Varma, a descendant of the royal family of Travancore and a journalist and author who lives in Chennai.While the Union ministry of external affairs confirmed the abduction and said it was “looking into this serious matter“, the city police said they had contacted the authorities in Dakar who said they had freed Varma on Thursday and confirmed that he was safe.Varma went missing in mysterious circumstances after embarking on a trip to Senegal to seal a transaction with an unknown person. He has gone to Se negal to sell some of the Raja Ravi Varma works that were part of family's collection, sources said.Varma, who was carrying some of the paintings of his famed ancestor, arrived in Dakar on Wednesday and went missing in the Senegal capital. The Chennai police registered a case after Varma's son Karthik Varma met commissioner T K Rajendran on Wednesday and said he received a call from a number starting with +444. The stranger said his father was in their custody in Senegal.Karthik told investi gators his father had left for Senegal with his uncle Goda. A probe revealed the caller used VoIP to contact Karthik.Varma is the son of Indira Bai, the second daughter of Travancore regent Maharani Pooradam Thirunal Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (1895-1985), who between 1924 and 1931 was regent of the Kingdom of Travancore in southern Kerala. The Travancore royal family adopted Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and her cousin Moolam Thirunal Sethu Parvathi Bayi, the granddaughters of Raja Ravi Varma.“Shreekumar has no enemies,“ Varma's friend and abstract artist Achuthan Kudallur said.