Bihar: Nawada man returns home after 18 years in Pak jail

PATNA: Ramchandra Yadav, who returned home to his family after 18 years in a Pakistani jail, couldn't recognize his youngest son Rakesh Kumar when he saw him on Wednesday. Rakesh was barely a year old when his mentally ill father went missing from their Nawada village in 2002.
Yadav, now 55, arrived from Gurdaspur in Punjab at his Bhawani Bigha village home under Kashichak police station in Nawada around 11 pm on Wednesday.Yadav was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) by Pakistan Rangers at Wagha border on August 19 from where he was brought to Nawada by his family members.
TOI managed to talk to Yadav over the phone, but he could only say that he was lodged in a Pakistani jail and tortured. He was unable to recall the place where he was but said he was kept in a cell all alone.
His wife, Shakunti Devi, told TOI that she always believed her husband will return. “That’s why I continued to put vermillion on my head for him. It feels great now,” she added.
One of his nephews Sanjay Yadav (45) said, “Uncle told us that he was in a Pakistani jail and cops used to beat him. He shares snippets whenever he recalls anything.”
Sanjay added, “He went missing in 2002 after losing his mental balance. We had taken him to Ranchi for treatment and he was under medication.”
Sanjay further said his uncle now prefers living a secluded life. “Uncle told us that he spent some time in Prayagraj and Punjab sometime before walking into Pakistan,” he said.
The family had searched for Yadav for nearly two years but failed.
“We used to alert those going Delhi, Punjab, Haryana to keep an eye but afterwards we gave up,” he said.
Yadav has three sons – Mithilesh (26), Akhilesh (23), Rakesh (19) and two daughters – Baby (28) and Gauri (24). “Baby, Gauri and Mithilesh are married now. We kept his family together all this while in the hope that uncle was alive somewhere even when some villagers used to say that he won’t return ever again,” he said, adding, they are now planning to get him treated properly once again.
Kashichak SHO Raj Kumar said on August 8, BSF sent a photo of Yadav with his name as ‘Chandra Ram’ and fathers name as ‘Gangu’ which turned out to be Gogu Yadav.
“For five days, we were unable to track him as none including even village chowkidar was able to recognise his photograph. Incidentally, one Ram Vilas Yadav from the same village recognised Yadav’s photograph,” he said.
The SHO said afterwards they contacted Yadav’s family and communicated to BSF. “We cross-verified his name from voters’ list and ration card with family too,” he said.