A millionaire businessman and his family, including a three-month-old baby, have disappeared, provoking an international police inquiry. They are investigating several letters, including one written from France, that purport to be from Amarjit Chohan, 46, the head of the family, claiming he had decided to go back to India with his sons, Ravinder, aged three months, Devinder, aged 18 months, his wife Nancy, 25, and her mother, Charanjit Kaur, 51.But, despite the letters, Mr and Mrs Chohan’s passports are still in Britain, their bank accounts remain untouched, no relatives or friends have been contacted, and all the children’s possessions are still at the family home in Heston, Hounslow.Five days after the Chohans were last seen, the family car – a blue Ford Escort, registration number S840LJH – was involved in a minor accident with another vehicle near Southampton. But the two people in the car – who gave false names and addresses – were a white and a black man.The initial police inquiry has been taken over by Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Directorate. Interpol, the international police agency, and the Indian authorities, have been alerted.Mr Chohan is a well-known figure within the Asian community in Southall and runs a fruit and vegetable import company, called CIBA Freight. The firm, which imports products from Kenya and Uganda, has an annual turnover of £45m.

Mr Chohan also owns five properties worth about £2.5m and has a substantial amount of money in his bank accounts.Despite his wealth, the family has a modest lifestyle and Mr Chohan drives a battered car, although he has made generous donations to various events held in Southall. The family’s disappearance has shocked staff at CIBA Freight, family and friends.The first indication of trouble came on 14 February when a letter signed in Mr Chohan’s name was sent to his staff saying that he “had enough” and was returning to India, where he was born. Another letter was written two days later to the company’s operations manager with a similar message. Like all the letters since the family’s disappearance it was written on a computer, which provoked suspicion because Mr Chohan’s correspondence was always hand written. The signature is being examined by handwriting experts to discover if it is forged.His wife, mother-in-law, and two boys were last seen at their home on 16 February. Mr Chohan was seen on the same day driving his Escort in Wiltshire and Hampshire.On 21 February the same vehicle was involved in an accident, but has not been seen since.

A month later, on 24 March, a letter with a postmark from Calais was sent saying that the family were in France and intended to go to India.. Strolling the stage with a cordless mike, the young man with a telegenic smile and designer stubble has all the ease of a seasoned game-show host. The audience whoops with delight and giggling young women in Islamic headscarves jostle outside his dressing room for autographs.
But Dyab Abou Jahjah is no light entertainer. A radical campaigner for the rights of Europe’s disenchanted Arab communities, he is one of the most controversial – and charismatic – figures in Belgium’s bland political arena.Next month he will stand for parliament. And as he takes his message further afield in Europe, Mr Abou Jahjah, 31, is being called the new Malcolm X.Although he is of Lebanese origin, his support comes mostly from the second generation of Belgium’s large Moroccan immigrant community Technically they have full Belgian citizenship In reality their status is second class. Mr Abou Jahjah demands more jobs, better schools and housing for Belgian Arabs. In Antwerp, he sends out “civilian patrols”, of smart young Arab men and women with mobile phones to shadow police and report racial harassment.He recently toured Dutch and English universities to drum up support for his fledgling lobby organisation, the Arab European League.

He dismisses “integration” and “assimilation” as degrading.Instead Mr Abou Jahjah pushes Middle East issues on to Belgium’s political agenda. His website is openly anti-Zionist and makes jibes at Antwerp’s Jewish community, which for centuries has worked in the city’s diamond industry.While his supporters see him as a vital counter-balance to the the anti-immigration Vlaams Blok party which won a staggering 33 per cent in Antwerp in the last elections, his critics say he puts personal ambition before the disaffected young Arabs he claims to represent. “He’s giving them an identity and respect they don’t have and that’s why they consider him their hero,” says Fauzia Talhaoui, a Green party MP who is of Moroccan origin.Meriel Beattie reports on Dyab Abou Jahjah in ‘Crossing Continents’, on Radio 4 today at 11am. Supporters of Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition government gave their leader a slap in the face yesterday when 17 of them voted with the opposition to force through an amendment in the lower house, banning any individual from owning more than two television channels. If the amended bill, which has yet to be passed by the Senate, became law he could be obliged to put Network 4 on the block.It was another big upset for the man they call “the Great Seducer” after Italy’s highest court of appeal in February rejected his attempt to get a criminal trial in which he is a defendant shifted to a friendly bench.Opposition leaders were cock-a-hoop. Francesco Rutelli, leader of the centre-left Olive coalition, described the vote as “the most important success the opposition has had in this parliament”. Giuseppe Giuletti, leader of the democratic left, said: “It’s a victory for a free parliament, for freedom of the press and of the market Now the Prime Minister will sell a network.