[Nellie N Manpoong]
ITANAGAR, Aug 29: A 19-year-old youth is on his way from Gangtok, Sikkim, to reunite with his family in Lower Subansiri HQ Ziro, nearly three years after he had gone missing from Itanagar in mid-December of 2016.
Speaking to this daily, Lower Subansiri SP Hemant Tiwari informed that the youth, identified as T Sangyu, had gone from Ziro to Itanagar with his older brother in mid-December of 2016, and had disappeared from their home in Itanagar.
Sangyu was 16 years old at the time of his disappearance.
On 26 August this year, nearly three years after his disappearance, the older brother received a call from a young man claiming to be his brother and requesting him to bring him back.
“Although there were speculations about the caller, the older brother informed the police here in Lower Subansiri district on the same day, and we immediately sent out a police team, led by SI Techi Vijay, on the evening of 26 August,” the SP said.
The CB CID Superintendent of Police in Gangtok, Manish Verma, was provided with the photograph of the young boy, the phone number he had called from, and the location of the area by the Lower Subansiri SP.
Verma, who also heads the anti-human trafficking unit in Gangtok, led a search team and zeroed in on the young man’s location, and found him working at a street-side eatery as an errand boy.
The Lower Subansiri SP said “the eatery’s owner did not abuse the young man, as per statements.”
“There was no abuse or forced labour, and we held a medical check-up to verify the same,” the SP said, and informed that the youth is on his way to his home in Ziro with his guardians and a team from the state police.