CRPF jawan’s wife seeks police help to trace husband

Twenty-six-year-old Bijaylaxmi Padhi, wife of Sarat Kumar Padhi (31), a jawan working under 121 battalion of CRPF at Diphu in Assam, said she moved the Orissa Police after senior officers in the paramilitary force did not come forward to help her.

“My husband was travelling in a train along with other jawans. They were on the way to Kathua in Jammu. He had boarded a Delhi-bound train from Diphu in Assam,” she said before meeting city Police Commissioner Binay Behera on Saturday.

Bijaylaxmi, mother of a son, said wife of the commanding officer of the 121 Battalion, Pankaj Pokhraj, was also travelling in the same train.

“While Sarat and other jawans were in second class three-tire coach, the commanding officer’s wife was in AC-two tire in the same train,” she said.

When Bijaylaxmi contacted commanding officer Pokhraj, she was told that Sarat had gone missing from Bhagalpur station in Bihar and his whereabouts could not be knwon.

Bijaylaxmi told the city Police Commissioner that she apprehended that Sarat might have been kidnapped or something ‘grave’ might have happened to his life. “I am in deep stress and unable to eat or sleeep,” she said.

The woman said she doubted the sincerity of the commanding officer’s effort to trace her husband. “I suspect that the commanding officer knows the details. But he is hiding facts.”

Stating that her husband used to contact her over phone on every alternate day, Bijaylaxmi said she has been waiting for a call from Sarat since April 26.

“Whenever my phone rings, the entire family, including my little son, rush to catch it. But every time we have been frustrated,” she said.

The hapless woman said though she had sought help from the CRPF group centre in Bhubaneswar, none helped her. When contacted, Behera said besides registering Bijaylaxmi’s petition as a missing case, the Orissa Police had asked the CRPF to inform them what steps were taken to find out the missing jawan.