Sundergarh: Birju Kulu, 50-year-old, who had returned to his native village at Katanga after spending 20 years in a Pakistan jail, reportedly went missing from his house.
The matter came to light after his sister lodged a missing complaint at Kutra police station on Sunday. His sister Tedrace Kulu said that Birju went missing since Saturday night. Police, family members along with the villagers have launched a search operation. But, they are yet to trace him.
Accompanied by senior government officials Kulu had reached his village and he received a rousing welcome from the fellow villagers in November 2020.
He had wandered off the border into Pakistan and served imprisonment for 20 years in Lahore, reached his native village in Odisha's Sundargarh district later. Hundreds of villagers welcomed Birju with the accompaniment of dances and songs in Sadri language in his native Jangateli village.
He was assumed to be mentally unstable and he was imprisoned in Pakistan jail on suspicion of being a spy from India, said an official. A team of district administration officials had visited Amritsar in Punjab earlier to bring him to his village.
With inputs from IANS
Also read: Odisha man returns home after 20 years in Pakistan jail
