A young man whom his family reported to the police as abducted has returned home to his village in Narayanganj after 14 years.
Now aged 22, the man, who identified himself only as Rubel, said he ran away from home when he was a child because his mother was violent with him if he didn’t do his chores.
Rubel is the son of Janu Miah, who lives in the Sadar Upazila’s Kurerpar area. His return to the village on Thursday evening caused an uproar. Locals detained him and turned him over to police custody.
Rubel’s mother, Rahima Begum, started an abduction case over his disappearance on Feb 23, 2007, said Sadar Police OC Shah Zaman. She had named 19 local people as suspects.
The case was initially investigated by Sadar Police SI Mokhlesur Rahman. He did not find evidence of the suspects’ involvement and submitted his final report to court on Jul 30 of the next year.
But the plaintiff in the case rejected the investigation report and it was transferred to the CID. The CID submitted its final report a few months later, but the plaintiff rejected that as well.
RAB took over the case and arrested six suspects, OC Rahman said, but the elite police unit did not complete their investigation. A court transferred the case to the Detective Branch.
DB Police SI Asaduzzaman Forazi submitted their final report on the investigation on Feb 14, 2010. The report absolved the suspects and the court dismissed the case.
Locals rushed to Rubel’s house on Thursday to see him after all this time. Among them were the suspects accused by Rubel’s mother, who then detained him and took him to the police.
“My mother had two cows,” Rubel told bdnews24.com. “If I didn’t cut grass to feed them, my mother would beat me up and wouldn’t let me have dinner.
“I ran away from home when I was around seven or eight years old because I couldn’t put up with it anymore.”
Rubel said he had done odd jobs to get by in various places near Dhaka city.
“I worked as a painter, I worked at a restaurant, I worked at Eastern Plaza. Later I married a girl from the area.”
“Last year I saw a relative of mine,” Rubel said. “Through them, I was able to get in touch with my mother. I told her I wanted to come home.
“But my mother said the villagers would kill me if I came back because there was a case over my disappearance. I was afraid, so I stayed away.”
“Today I came back without telling anyone. But the villagers recognised me. They kept staring at me when they saw me. I met my mother. After that the villagers brought me to the police,” he added.
