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This is an archive article published on January 1, 2023
‘Biggest gift of my life’: Haryana man reunites with wife who went missing nine years ago
Karnataka-based old age home gave shelter to the ‘mentally unstable’ woman and helped reunite the couple
Kehar Singh was in tears when he met his wife after nine years. (Express Photo)
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‘Biggest gift of my life’: Haryana man reunites with wife who went missing nine years ago
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Kehar Singh, 55, from Haryana had a reason to celebrate the New Year in a big way as he reunited with his missing wife after nine years at Kodagu on Saturday. Thanks to a Karnataka-based shelter home that took care of her for four years and also contacted her family in Haryana.
Emotions ran high at the Thanal Home, a shelter for the destitute in Kodagu, on Saturday as Kehar saw his 50-year-old wife Darshini, who had gone missing from Haryana’s Rohtak in 2013. She somehow landed in Karnataka in 2018 and the NGO that runs the shelter home succeeded in tracing Kehar who had given up on finding his wife again. The couple has five children.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Mohammed Mustafa, who runs Thanal Home, said, “Four years ago, Kushalnagar police reached out to us informing that a semi-naked woman was roaming in the streets and requested us to take care of her.
We went and bought her. Her mental state was really in bad shape. We provided her shelter and during the counselling, she could recall only Haryana about her past.”
Mustafa said to date they don’t know how how she survived between 2013 and 2018, and how she ended up in Karnataka.
“However, Darshini’s condition improved gradually. Six months ago, she could racall her hometown Rohtak and we contacted Haryana Police for information on missing complaints. Eventually, we came to know that there was a missing complaint about a woman from 2013 and managed to contact Kehar,” Mustafa said.
Kehar was in tears seeing his wife after nine years. “She was mentally ill even then. She went missing and we filed a police complaint. I, along with other members of the family, searched for her in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab.
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Then I gave up. The call from Mustafa was the biggest gift of my life,” Kehar said.
The couple left Bengaluru to their native place via train on Sunday.
Mustafa said Darshini has recovered but she still needs treatment. “She was very happy seeing her husband after a long time,” he added.
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