Runaways' quest for freedom aborts 'mission reunion'

KOLKATA: Over the last few days, a bizarre drama unfolded in the city involving two mentally disturbed persons, one of whom wasn’t keen to get admitted to hospital and the other was averse to returning home. Now, both are at large with the police in Kolkata and at least in two other districts searching for them.

On Wednesday, Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club ( WBRC ) that has facilitated the reunion of several people with their families over the last few years, received a call from Kolaghat police station in East Midnapore. He was told that a team was escorting a mentally disturbed person to a hospital in Picnic Garden in Kolkata. The team was to reach the hospital by 5pm.

“The police sent me a photograph of the man, Pawan Reddy, seeking assistance in tracing his family. I waited till 8pm and then called up the mental hospital. I was told that the police did get a person admitted there in the evening. The hospital, however, told me that his name was Rajesh Paswan . I suspected something amiss but felt that the patient may be identifying himself differently due to his condition. I could not speak to Paswan that evening as he was quite aggressive and I was told to call again on Thursday morning,” Nag Biswas said.

On Thursday morning, Paswan spoke to Nag Biswas and gave him several addresses in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Finally, his father Birender Paswan was traced to the Hapur police station area in Uttar Pradesh. He lived there with Rajesh’s wife and two children and had lodged a missing diary after his son went missing a year ago. The family then shifted to Bihar’s Khagaria, where Birender was employed by the Food Corporation of India. Believing Rajesh to be the same person as Reddy, Nag Biswas then forwarded his photograph to Birender, who replied that the man in the photograph was not his son.

“We then got in touch with the Kolaghat police station and was told that Reddy had escaped from the vehicle near the Hastings crossing when it had stopped at a red light. A complaint was lodged at Hastings police station. Our secretary then asked for a photograph of Rajesh from the hospital authorities, but the rules didn’t permit this. Eventually, a photograph of Birender with Rajesh’s two children was shown to the patient and he identified them,” said Subir Dutta, WBRC president.

On Friday, Birender reached Kolkata and got his son released after submitting proper documentation. They were to spend the night at a relative’s place in Dankuni. Early on Saturday, however, Rajesh fled.