Rajkumari (2nd from right) reunited with her family after 12 years
Meerut: Twelve years after mysteriously vanishing at a fair in Haridwar, 42-year-old Rajkumari has finally been reunited with her family in Nepal, thanks to a coordinated cross-border effort by Bareilly Police, a local rehabilitation NGO and Nepalese local authorities. It’s been 12 years — we had started losing hope. Her children, Ram and Laxman, are now 14 and 15 years old.
“We directed Manosamarpan Psychosocial Community Centre for regular counselling for at least a month and treatment so that she could help us in tracing her home across the border,” said Bareilly SSP Anurag Arya. Local ward chairman Lal Bahadur Rana assisted in locating her family and issued a formal “letter of authenticity”, requesting Indian authorities to facilitate her return. Rajkumari had separated from her husband, Bejhu Chaudhary, and their two young children — aged two and three at the time — while visiting Haridwar, where her husband worked as a daily-wage laborer. For over a decade, her family searched in vain, eventually losing hope of ever seeing her again. Police placed her in the care of Manosamarpan Psychosocial Community Centre in Rajau Parsapur for specialised rehabilitation and care. Acting on these details, a team from the NGO travelled directly to Kanchanpur to verify her identity. “For months we kept looking for her, but without success. Finally, our family is reunited again,” an emotional Balram shared.
On Monday, Rajkumari’s brother Balram Chaudhary arrived in Bareilly to bring his sister back home.