In an incident shrouded in mystery, a 36-year old IAS officer went missing today from a restaurant in Shahajanpur off 150 km from Jaipur in Rajasthan. The incident jolted the entire state police machinery into action.

Mr Naveen Jain went into a restaurant along with his wife and son for breakfast this morning but suddenly he got up from his table on the pretext of making a call from his mobile phone and walked outside. When he didn’t return for a long time, his wife came out and looked for him. She only found a note in the car parked outside in which he asked his wife and son to take care of themselves and not worry about him.

Mr Naveen, who worked as Baran district Collector in his previous assignment, was posted as Commissioner of Settlements in Jaipur in the first week of August. After his transfer, there was a controversy over the allotment of an official residence to him.

In the note, he expressed sorry he was unable to provide a house to his family and asked his wife not to disturb him. “I am going somewhere and kindly don’t disturb me,” he told his wife.

A worried government has sent search teams to Haryana and Delhi and exit routes of the state are being checked.

Jain belongs to Haryana and had worked as district collector in Hanumangarh, Karauli and Rajsamand districts of Rajasthan.