Retired Bihar professor’s missing son found in Bongaon after two years

KOLKATA: When a messenger reached Kalyani Saha’s residence in Bihar’s Purnea on Thursday, the family was preparing for a funeral. Kalyani’s elder brother-in-law, the patriarch of the family, had passed away and the body was to be taken to the crematorium. It may not have been the best place to break the news that Kalyani’s son Vikas Kumar, who went missing in July 2017, had been traced to a hospital in Bongaon.

The mood changed when the messenger finally managed to inform the family. Tears of sorrow changed to those of joy. His mother had lodged a police complaint and the authorities had treated it as a case of abduction.
“I was head of the department of psychology in a college at Madhepura before I retired. My husband passed away in 1994. My younger son Vikas hurt his head after a fall from the roof in childhood. He slipped into depression after the death of his father. I tried my best to get him treated and took him to several specialists. At the same time, I had to marry off my four daughters and take care of my other son. I was also not keeping well and am now nearly blind in one eye. Despite all this, I kept on blaming myself after Vikas left home in 2017. I always felt that it wouldn’t have happened had I taken better care of him,” Kalyani said.
Vikas was picked up as a vagrant by the police about eight months ago and admitted to the Bongaon Hospital. Doctors and nurses there realized that the youth suffered from a mental disorder. They did their best to treat him till running into a legal hurdle recently. Vikas requires a surgery as one of his feet is gangrenous. This surgery can only take place with consent from a family member. It was then that the hospital authorities got in touch with Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary, West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC).
“Initially, he told us that he was from Maharashtra and gave us locations from Pune and elsewhere. The locations were correct and it seems that he has been there but his family could not be traced there. After a lot of effort, we finally chanced upon the name Purnea. We immediately sought help from amateur radio operators from there and the family was traced to Banmankhi in Purnea. An amateur radio buff immediately set out for Banmankhi and found the family in mourning,” Biswas said.