Baripada: The mere chanting of the Lord’s name can provide relief, it is believed.
While many would laugh this off as wishful thinking, it seems to have worked for 41-year-old Sudam Hembram from the Jagannathpur village in Badasahi block of Mayurbhanj in Odisha, who had been missing from home for over 11 years.
For years together, people in Chapainawabganj in Bangladesh saw this man loitering in the neighborhood. Clad in a tattered kurta and lungi, with matted hair and an unkempt beard, they took him for a vagabond.
A few months ago, the Manabik Sahayata Kendra took him under its care. That was when Md Abdul Gani Fitu – the founder of this organisation – heard him chanting “Jai Jagannath”.
Fitu immediately got in touch with Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC), an organisation of amateur radio operators or HAMs.
“As soon as we came to know that he was chanting “Jai Jagannath”, we got in touch with our associates in Odisha. In October, he was traced to the Mayurbhanj district. We immediately got in touch with the
Ministry of External Affairs and the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh, with the necessary information and copies of documents,” Nag Biswas told Odisha Bytes.
It is believed that Hembram, who probably suffered from a mental ailment, crossed the border and entered Bangladesh, several years ago. His family never lodged a missing complaint with the police.
Mayurbhanj SP Varun Guntupalli confirmed that the district police headquarters received information from the Office of the High Commission of India in Dhaka and the collector about Hembram. The authorities requested the Mayurbhanj police to verify his identity.
Administrative and police officials from the district, along with Hembram’s nephew Subash Hembram and brother-in-law Simandu Hembram, travelled to Haridaspur along the Indo-Bangladesh Border in the North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal to receive him. Following completion of formal procedures, Bangladeshi authorities handed him over to the Indian side.
Subash told The New Indian Express that the family had searched for him years earlier but could not trace him, and no missing complaint was lodged at the police station. The SP confirmed the family had made efforts initially, but discontinued them over time.
Hembram’s return is yet another success of the amateur radio operators who use their wide network to help stranded people get back to their families. Nag Biswas says that this is how technology can be used to benefit society.