'Dead' man from Odisha returns home after 57 years

Kolkata: A 75-year-old man, who went missing from his home in Odisha 57 years ago, reunited with his family on Wednesday, thanks to the efforts of Ham Radio operators.

Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of West Bengal Radio Club, said around four months ago he saw an elderly man lying on a bench and warding off mosquitoes at Sodepur railway station.

On the next day, Biswas gave him a blanket and a mosquito net. At the time, he tried interacting with the man but failed to find out anything about him as the man did not utter a word. At first, Biswas thought that the man was deaf and dumb. From that day, Biswas started giving him some food and money. After a few days, Biswas gave him a small radio set.

The man was very happy to get the radio, he started listening to songs on it and eventually he started talking.

He told Biswas that his name was Charu Besan but did not tell anything about his home. As days went by, Biswas kept on trying to interact with Charu to know about him and his native place.

One day, Charu requested Biswas to get him some sweets. When Biswas bought him sweets, Charu said: "Jagannath tumhara bhala kare" (May Jagannath bless you).

Hearing this Biswas understood that Charu was from Odisha. He tried digging out more information about Charu's native place. One day the elderly man told Biswas that there was a paper mill and a ground near his house.

Based on these two information, Biswas got in touch with Dushyant Kumar Das, a Ham Radio operator in Odisha, and asked him to find out if a place existed where there was a paper mill and a ground close by.

A few days later Das told Biswas that there was a place called Brajrajnagar in Jharsuguda district of Odisha that had a paper mill and ground close by. He said the paper mill was shut many years ago. Meanwhile, Charu told Biswas that his brother's name was Ayoddha and he was a carpenter.

Biswas immediately told Das to look for Ayoddha. A few more days later, Das found Ayoddha alias Ajay and showed them Charu's picture.

At first, he failed to recognise his elder brother but later he identified Charu. He told Das that his elder brother went missing when he was about 20-year-old. They had lodged a missing complaint but police failed to find him.

After years, Charu was declared dead and a death certificate was issued on his name.

After confirming his identity and other information, Ham Radio operators in Odisha got in touch with the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jharsuguda district.

The SP arranged for Ayoddha's ticket to Kolkata and to his native place. He arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday morning and took Charu back home with him on Wednesday night.

Subir Dutta, President of West Bengal Radio Club said, "We are happy to help a person to reunite with his family after so many years."