Boy on ‘spiritual quest’ brought back home after five months

KOLKATA: He had secured over 90% in his Class XII board examination. He was among the first 350 in WBJEE and even scured a rank in the IIT (JEE Mains). On May 23, hours after he wrote the IIT (JEE Advanced) examination, he had gone missing. Egged on by his father, the dogged perseverence of cops from Bansdroni police station has finally led them to him, at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

In the intervening months, the boy has been on a spiritual journey of self-discovery, visiting various places of pilgrimage across Punjab and Uttarakhand: Amritsar, Haridwar, Hrishikesh, Joshimath, Hemkund and Badrinath, among others. Short of funds, he has barely managed to meet his expenses and often stayed in temples and gurdwaras and had meals in langars.


Police had travelled to almost 11 different locations across the country and arrested two saints who had helped the boy. “He always managed to stay ahead of us. It was the chance use of his Facebook profile account in October that he finally provided a clue to his location,” said an investigating officer.

Speaking to police, the boy said he had travelled on foot for days, hitched an odd ride when he was too weary. He does not repent disappearing one fine day without informing his parents. “Anyone who wants to shine in life has to do it on one’s own. A parent’s role ends in ensuring the child grows up. Look at the animal kingdom. Once the baby animal walks on its own, he charts his own course. That is the law of nature,” he told the cops after being found.

The boy did not respond to calls or WhataApp messages on Saturday but his family said they were relieved to know he was well. “During his absence, his mother had to be hospitalized twice. His father travelled to several pilgrimage spots looking for him,” said a family member.

Police said formal investigation, like looking into CCTV footage, monitoring mobile phones, circulation of missing profiles had not elicited any clue. “We talked ot 85 friends/teachers but nothing could be learnt except that he was introvert,” an officer recounted. The break came on the morning of August 3 when one mobile number of the missing boy started to function. The tower location was traced to Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand.

A team from Bansdroni PS immediately set out. At Badrinath Ashram, he met with two monks — Sheetal Das Maharaj (35) and Rabi Itkar Maharaj (26). The bag of the missing boy, one set apparel, his SIM cards, identity documents and a note book were recovered from their possession. But they said the missing boy had visited their ashram between July 20 and 22 and left the bag behind by mistake. The SIM card was used by Sheetal Das in his own cellphone. Suspecting complicity, the police took the two into custody and brought them to Kolkata. But prolonged interrogation did not reveal anything else.

The boy wrote a lot in his note book but they were in code language that proved difficult to decipher. It also contained one phone number that belonged to Sukraj Singh, Phusmandi of Bhatinda. Accordingly, on September 11, 2018, another police team was sent to Phusmandi village in Bhatinda. They found Sukraj Singh (29), a truck driver, who said he met a boy in front of a petrol pump on the Amritsar-Pathankot road in first week of July and he talked with him for just six minutes. He identified the boy’s photograph.

A number of teams were then sent to Pathankot, Chandigarh and Amritsar but nothing fruitful seemed to emerge. What the teams did manage was develop several good contacts in these areas. Ultimately, it was the lure of social media that proved the boy’s folly. On October 4, he logged on to his Facebook page and sent a message to a friend. The investigating team noticed it immeditely. They learned that the account was accessed using a WiFi zone in Jai Singh Chawk, Amritsar.

“A team of Bansdroni PS that was already in Amritsar could not locate the address. They then sought local help and it turned out to be the Golden Temple. “He is a sewak at the Amritsar Golden temple where thousands of pilgrims and vagabonds get food and shelter. The boy was then traced to the temple library and brought back,” said an investigating officer.