ROORKEE: A man who had been missing for 20 years was reunited with his family on Tuesday after Roorkee police found him living at Piran Kaliyar Sharif Dargah disguised as a seer. Jitendra Kashyap, 35, had left his home in Moradabad’s Dalpatpur village in 2005 when he was 15 after his widowed mum denied him money to purchase snacks, said police.He had remained untraceable despite his family’s efforts, and his mum, who faced a severe emotional toll after his ‘disappearance’, died around eight years ago, without being able to find him. Kashyap’s real identity was only confirmed on Monday during a police verification drive as part of ‘Op Kalnemi’, which was initiated in Uttarakhand during the kanwar yatra against men who have allegedly been posing as seers to dupe people, mainly women and youngsters. He survived for all these years by begging at the shrine premises.Police handed him over to his surviving relatives on Tuesday, who broke down in tears upon being reunited with him. “He left on foot and gradually travelled, possibly by bus or hitching rides, before eventually reaching Kaliyar after several months. There, he began begging and started living with a few ascetics. We searched for him desperately back then. By God’s grace, we found him alive,” said Charan Singh, Kashyap’s maternal uncle. Singh, along with three other relatives, went to Kaliyar to bring him home.Kashyap had lost his father when he was barely six years old. He has a younger sister who is now married. His extended family comprises daily wage labourers. With both of his parents no longer alive, Singh informed police that he would take his nephew to live with him in Moradabad’s Bathua Khera village.“It was extremely difficult to get any information from Jitendra about his family. Since he is someone with learning difficulties, we had to patiently probe and piece together fragments of information before finally identifying his relatives,” said Ravindra Kumar, in-charge of Piran Kaliyar police station. He added that this was the first such case under Op Kalnemi in the state where a missing person was reunited with his family. Piran Kaliyar police have so far identified and detained 12 individuals posing as seers under the operation.
