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Woman seeks police help to trace missing husband

Bhubaneswar: A woman has urged the Orissa Police to help her in tracing her missing husband, a CRPF jawan, claiming that no assistance was coming from the para-military force in finding him.

Bijaylaxmi Padhi (26), wife of Sarat Kumar Padhi (31), a jawan working in 121 battalion of CRPF at Diphu in Assam, said she approached the Orissa Police after officers in the para-military force did not come forward to help her.

Her husband went missing while travelling by a train on April 26, the woman said.

“My husband was travelling by a train along with other jawans. They were on the way to Kathua in Jammu. He had boarded a Delhi-bound train from Diphu,” she told PTI before meeting city Police Commissioner Binay Behera yesterday.

Bijaylaxmi said Sarat and other jawans were travelling in the second class three-tier coach. When she contacted the commanding officer of the battalion Pankaj Pokhraj, she was told that Sarat had gone missing from Bhagalpur station in Bihar and his whereabouts could not be known.

She alleged that she was deliberately not being informed about the whereabouts of her husband and that when she sought assistance from CRPF group centre here, no one helped her.

Behera told PTI that besides registering Bijaylaxmi’s petition as a missing case, the Orissa Police has asked the CRPF to inform it about steps taken to trace the jawan.

When contacted, Pokhraj maintained that Padhi got down at Bhagalpur station for collecting drinking water and did not return. “I am equally worried... we have filed a missing report with GRP Bhagalpur and also informed the headquarters,” he said adding, efforts were on to find Padhi.

Bijaylaxmi told the city police commissioner that she apprehended that Sarat might have been kidnapped or something ‘grave’ might have happened to him. “I am in deep stress and unable to eat or sleep,” she said.

The woman said she doubted the sincerity of the commanding officer’s effort to trace her husband.

“I suspect that the commanding officer knows, but he is hiding facts.”

Stating that her husband used to contact her over phone on every alternate day, Bijaylaxmi said she waited for a call from Sarat since April 26.

The hapless woman said though she had sought help from the CRPF group centre in Bhubaneswar, no one helped her. When contacted, the city police commissioner Behera told PTI that besides registering Bijaylaxmi’s petition as a missing case, the Orissa Police had asked the CRPF to inform it what steps were taken to find out the missing jawan.

“Besides, I have also spoken to the Superintendent of Police of Bhagalpur in this regard. I have also requested the SP to circulate photograph of Sarat Padhi to various police station in the locality to trace the jawan,” Behera said. – PTI

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