By James Rougvie

A DUNDEE businessman whose 22-year-old grand-daughter’s body was yesterday found following a whitewater rafting accident in Thailand spoke of his faint hopes she still might have been alive, even eight days after the incident.

Ibrahim Okhai said he would only accept the inevitable after he saw pictures of Dundee law student Shenaz Kapoor, which are being wired from Bangkok.

Shenaz, on holiday with a friend during a gap year from Dundee University, had been working with children affected by the Boxing Day tsunami when she embarked on the raft trip in the Phang Nga area.

She is believed to have been thrown out of the craft when a flash flood hit the area, causing the raft to capsize.

Shenaz had been with another girl from the university on the rafting trip. Her uncle, Yusuf Okhai, said last week four of the five on the raft were saved, but Shenaz disappeared.

“Her lifejacket was seen floating within a minute of the raft capsizing. I think the current must have taken the lifejacket off her. She was petite and the lifejacket must have been too big.”

A search and rescue team found her body yesterday, trapped beneath a rock, and local police said efforts were being made to retrieve it.

A Foreign Office spokesman said they were told by police Shenaz had been found, and her family had been informed.

The Kapoor family run the Medea International company on Dundee’s Gourdie industrial estate, marketing its own brand computer products, and Shenaz was a member of the city’s well-known Okhai family.

Mr Okhai expressed surprise the rescue teams had been able to identify his grand-daughter after so long in the water.

Mr Okhai said, “I have asked them to send me photographs so we know it is her. One can never be 100% certain because human beings live in hope.

“I think I knew from day one that she was lost because I have seen the white water conditions over there. Unless you can be fished out in the first few minutes your chances are remote—but miracles do happen.”

He said they would be trying to bring Shenaz back as soon as possible. “It normally takes about three weeks for the formalities to be completed, but the British Consul in Bangkok have agreed to try to shortcut everything if possible, so we may be able to get her back by next week.”

A university spokesman said yesterday, “We are deeply saddened across the University of Dundee community on hearing this news.”

Shenaz was a gifted and determined student and a very popular figure within the School of Law, he said. She made a tremendous contribution to university life and would be sadly missed. She was due to begin the final year of her degree in law with Spanish next month. She was also vice-president of the university’s Islamic society.