Garo boy to reunite with family after 4 yrs

From Our Correspondent  

TURA, JAN 19: Twenty five year old youth from Meghalaya’s Garo hills Sillian A. Sangma, who had gone missing four year back is finally set to reunite with his family.

In 2012, he had gone missing in Calcutta while returning from Chennai.

The tragic tale of a divided family has evoked a very strong response from all quarters of the state with many coming forward to help in whatever way they could.

On December 12, 2012 while returning by train along with two friends from Assam, he had gone missing.

He narrated that he was waylaid and drugged and his belongings, including his identity cards all stolen. Being in an unfamiliar place with nothing and language like Hindi, English or Bengali which he did not understand, the 21 year old could not get back to Rongram, his native place in West Garo Hills.

Family members informed that Sillian was in Chennai after he was promised a job by a known person from Tura. It was only when he was returning that tragedy struck.

He seemingly lost his mental equilibrium soon after and began to beg on the streets of Calcutta for survival, later settling on the Sector 5 area as a more permanent place.

An FIR was filed after Sillian failed to get home at the Rongram outpost on the outskirts of Tura on December 28, 2012.

An attempt had been made earlier to locate the youth and bring him back, however he remained untraceable.

In December last, Sillian contacted his family through a Samaritan from Calcutta, an auto driver by profession.

“I used to see him begging on the streets. Most of us were used to him and helped him with food whenever we could. When I asked him one day where he was from, he explained and could remember an old number being used by one of his relatives,” said the auto driver when contacted.

Good fortune struck for the family and they were finally able to communicate through the efforts of the auto driver.

However the family did not know how to go about meeting their son and thus contacted a social activist, Shoshon A Sangma, who incidentally is also their cousin, and sought help from a media person.

Upon being informed, the matter was immediately highlighted on social media, which immediately went viral. Shortly after the news went viral, some people confirmed they had seen the youth near the Infinity building in Sector 5, Salt Lake in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Supratim Sinha, a resident of Tura, studying in Calcutta was the first to post a photo of him on social media and confirmed seeing him at Salt Lake yesterday.

Cornelius Gomes, a social activist, who has been working against human trafficking over the past decade in West Bengal, later reached the scene to assist the youth. He however refused all forms of support and even denied being who he was.

Police intervention too did not help much and the activist decided to seek his family’s presence.

“You could understand his mental conditioning as he felt alone and lived alone this way over four years surviving through help provided by people. When I spoke to him he seemed offended. It was more like why is this man trying to mess up my life,” said Cornelius over phone.

Based on the recommendation of Gomes some members of his family come to Calcutta immediately so that he did not fall into the wrong hands and things got worse.

A four member team, including two family members as well as social activists reached Calcutta last evening along with Cornelius and met Sillian. They were also joined by more members of the Garo community.

Clan members of Sillian pitched in to ensure the current effort was not futile with money for tickets to get to Calcutta.

The task facing the people set to help was immense as Sillian had rejected any sort of support provided and even denied being a Garo (though he did so in the Garo language itself).

“When he met him today he responded to us unlike other times and communication took place. We had lunch and he was willing to go along with us. We will be taking him to Meghalaya House before waiting on tickets to return home. He has had a torrid time over the past few years and we just want him to get back home as quickly as possible,” said Shoshan from Calcutta.

Formalities to bring back Sillian was completed today with the Bidhan Nagar police team assisting in the process before he was taken to Meghalaya House to finally get some much deserved rest.

“We are really thankful to all that contributed to help Sillian get back with us. There is no bigger joy for us,” said the mother.

“This is such an inspiring story and I am glad that the youth will finally get to meet his family after going through so much in his young life,” said Pravin Bakshi, deputy commissioner of West Garo Hills, when informed of the youth’s recovery.