DEHRADUN: Real and unreal. Snake or rope? Ancient Indian philosophers had agonised over it through the centuries. Police in Uttarakhand and UP are dealing with it now. The story of a missing man miraculously reunited with his family – first in Dehradun and then in Ghaziabad – after years in oblivion has tied them up in knots as they deal with a riddle of fractured truths and overlapping narratives.
Three days ago, the man – Monu Sharma? Bhim Singh? – had stepped into a police station in Ghaziabad, claiming that he was abducted 31 years ago as an eight-year-old. After an initial ‘probe’, his ‘revelations’ led to a tearful reunion with a family that had mourned him for decades.
What the Ghaziabad police and the family didn’t know then was that the same man had ‘reunited’ with another family in Dehradun just five months ago. The elderly parents in Uttarakhand had at that time embraced “Monu” as their son who’d been missing for 16 years since he disappeared at nine. The man, whose identity is yet to be established, was detained by police on Saturday.
TOI has seen photographs from both the reunions and has verified that it’s the same man. So, who is he, really? No one knows. Police are investigating the case to find answers to a puzzle that has left cops in two states and families in both UP and Uttarakhand aghast.
The man – distant, dishevelled – first came to the attention of Dehradun police at the beginning of July.
Working to determine his true identity & intentions: Cops
He had then introduced himself as Monu Sharma. He told officers that he had been abducted by unidentified individuals who took him to a remote area in Rajasthan. There, he claimed, he was forced to work as bonded labour for a shepherd’s family. He said he was eventually rescued by a truck driver from Uttarakhand who had visited the area to buy cattle.
Police, excited at the homecoming of a prodigal, promptly ran an advertisement with his photograph: fetch the dear old boy. It caught the eye of elderly Asha Sharma, a resident of Patel Nagar in Dehradun. She said it was her missing son. And took him home.
But two days ago, the same man appeared at the Khoda police station in Ghaziabad, identifying himself as Bhim Singh this time. In his new retelling, he claimed he was abducted 31 years ago, at the age of eight, while returning home from school with his sister. The second half of the story, though, had no dramatic deviance. He recounted a similar ordeal – of being taken to Rajasthan, where he was forced into labour until his eventual escape. Police in Ghaziabad circulated his photograph and a family leapt up in joy. The man had found a home – again.
Asha’s husband, Kapil Dev Sharma, expressed doubts. “I always suspected he was a fraud. He often quarrelled with us and even told my wife that our granddaughters should not stay with us. Now, after hearing about (the) Ghaziabad (incident), I am convinced he has been deceiving us. He should be arrested so that he can’t play with the emotions of other families.” Kapil Dev Sharma alleged that before leaving for Delhi, the man took 8,000 from his employer and a local NGO by narrating fabricated tales of his hardship.
Inspector Pradeep Pant, who heads the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) in Dehradun, said police are coordinating with their counterparts in Ghaziabad to investigate the case. “So far, it appears that it is the same individual in both cases. We are working to determine his true identity and understand his intentions. If any fraud is involved, we will ensure no other family suffers due to his actions,” Pant told TOI.