Daya Ram’s ordeal doesn’t seem to end. After the traumatic days in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, the mentally unstable prisoner now has two families staking claim for him.While he said he was a native of Uttar Pradesh, a family from Haryana’s Sonepat turned up today, claiming that Daya Ram was their relative, lost 40 years ago.A confused Daya Ram did not react to his ‘‘new family,’’ but authorities at Amritsar’s Institute of Mental Health, where he is lodged, said he turned violent and had to be sedated.Deputy Commissioner Kirandeep Singh said he would inquire into the authenticity of the claims of both families—he also did not rule out a DNA test.Daya Ram was among the 453 prisoners released by Pakistan on Monday—one of the 12 mentally unstable Indian prisoners lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail whose plight was first reported by The Sunday Express.A small-time farmer who became mentally unstable in 1998, he went missing from his home in UP’s Siddharthnagar district on India-Nepal border in 2002 and mysteriously landed in Pakistan.‘‘We are sure he is our Daya Ram but do not want to leave even a one per cent chance. We are now calling his family from Siddharthnagar here,’’ said Ghaziabad’s Sub-Divisional Magistrate Dharmendra Singh, who is in Amritsar.‘‘He can hardly speak but told us in Bhojpuri that he wanted to go home. He seems very scared,’’ said Singh.The family from Sonepat that arrived in Amritsar—‘‘elder brother’’ Rawel Singh (70), a resident of Ferozpur Bangar village, Daya Ram’s ‘‘wife’’ Murti Devi (58) and ‘‘son’’ Raj Kapur (40). ‘‘He was in the Army and has been missing since the 1965 Indo-Pak conflict while he was posted at Ambala. We were told in 1968 by the Army that he had died. We even started getting his pension. We recognised him from the photos published in newspapers,’’ claimed Rawel Singh.Murti Devi said she was sure it was her husband. She said she was three months’ pregnant when Daya Ram went missing. The son, Raj Kapur, now works with the Home Ministry.B L Goyal, director of Amritsar’s Institute of Mental Health, said the district administration had directed him to treat Daya Ram till a final decision regarding his ‘‘real family’’ was taken. Treatment can’t wait till then.
