Police excavation of Devon field fails to find family of murdered businessman

Police investigating the murder of a businessman and the disappearance of his family were last night preparing to examine evidence from a field where he was buried.

Officers, who dug for five days in the field near Stoodleigh, Devon, said they believed Amarjit Chohan was buried there before being dumped in the sea.

Police said there was no sign that other bodies were buried in the field. But detectives refused to reveal what was found for "operational reasons".

Mr Chohan, who was 46 and owned a haulage firm, was found floating near Bournemouth pier last month.Devon and Cornwall police said officers, who carried out the excavations for the Metropolitan Police, would remain at the site and further digs were possible.

Police started excavating the site following what is thought to have been a tip-off. Det Chief Insp Norman McKinlay said there was "evidence a body or bodies have been in this area".

Mr Chohan and his wife Nancy, 25, their sons Ravinder, four months, Devinder, 19 months, and Mrs Chohan's mother, Charanjit Kaur, 51, vanished from their home in Hounslow, west London, in February.

Most of the family's clothes and the children's toys were left behind. The family bank account has not been touched since.

Detectives at Scotland Yard said on 3 May that they wanted to interview Ken Regan, who worked for Mr Chohan as a heavy goods vehicle driver, and his friend William Horncy, in connection with the case. They were seen boarding a ferry for France at Dover on 30 April. Detectives are also examining the financial dealings of Mr Chohan, whose firm CIBA Freight Services, had an annual turnover of up to £4m. The company imports fruit and vegetables from Africa and employs 22 people.

Mr Regan, 54, who used to own a haulage company called Superior Freight, has known Mr Chohan for eight years but only joined CIBA last year. He lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and Mr Horncy, 51, who uses the alias William Smith, is from the Bournemouth area.

A post-mortem examination at Boscombe mortuary in Bournemouth on 23 April, a day after Mr Chohan's body was found, failed to establish a cause of death and there will be a further examination in the coming days.