SIVAGANGA: Sainapuram village witnessed a tearful reunion on Thursday when C Arumugam brought his long-lost mentally-ill son home, all thanks to a Chennai-based NGO who helped trace A Muneeswaran, now 37 years of age, who has been missing for the last 12 years.
But the happiness was short-lived as the son started turned violent and was later admitted to a private mental hospital. Tears were rolling down the cheeks of 65-year-old Arumugam, a watchman living in a private farm in Sainapuram, when he shared with TNIE the incidents that happened on the fateful day in December 2007.
Arumugam said that he and his son were standing in a queue in front of Institute of Mental Health at Kilpauk in Chennai to receive their daily share of bread and milk when Muneeswaran ran away and disappeared in the crowd.
“He fell prey to drugs at the age of 15. I took him to the Chennai institute after two years of psychiatric treatment at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai. He was admitted to the institute on and off over a period of four years. Despite me staying with him at the institute, he ran away from the facility twice, but had returned home on both occasions,” said Arumugam, adding that he returned to Madurai after three days, hoping that he would return ‘as usual’.
The father said that since he did not get any sign of him, even after many days, he went back to Chennai with a photograph of his son. “A good Samaritan took me to a few shelter homes in the vicinity, where those wandering in streets were accommodated. But there was no trace of my son.
As days passed, my wife and daughters began to suspect that I had poisoned my son to get rid of him and that I was staging the ‘son missing’ drama.”It was on November 13 that volunteers of Udhavum Karangal rescued Muneeswaran from Velappanchavadi junction near Thiruverkadu.
Founder of Udhavum Karangal S Vidyaakar said that after a few sessions of psychiatric interventions, Muneeswaran who hardly spoke at first began to reveal the name of his village where he used to reside.