Family in Odisha's Puri reunites with woman presumed dead after 10 years

PURI: It was an emotional moment for Shankar Bhagat who arrived in the city here on Thursday to take his wife Tara back home after 10 years of separation. A native of Bolpur in West Bengal, Shankar and his children had performed the last rites of Tara thinking her to be dead as she went untraceable for several years from their house close to Santiniketan in WB.

The union of the family with Tara could be possible due to the reach of social media. Shankar said his wife was undergoing treatment for psychiatric ailments when she went missing from home. As Tara remained untraceable for several years, the Bhagat family performed her last rites assuming she had died. 

However, the first ray of hope came after a family friend told Shankar that he had seen Tara’s picture on social media posted by a Puri-based organisation Hope is Life. Shankar and his children saw the picture and recognised Tara.

They then interacted with a volunteer of the organisation over video call and it came to the fore that Tara was living in an old-age home here. As per sources, police had also made efforts to find from her about family but in vain.

Secretary of the organisation Suresh Kumar Nanda said Tara, now 65 years old, could not give much information on how she ended up in Puri. She told the volunteers that she reached Puri by train and had darshan of Lord Jagannath. She then stayed with a servitor family after which she was taken to the old-age home with the help of the organisation where she lived for 10 years.

Looking at her condition, the organisation’s volunteers uploaded her live videos on social media seeking information about her whereabouts.Expressing his gratitude to Hope is Life, Shankar along with his family left for Bolpur with Tara.