Delhi man escapes ‘scolding’ of wife to work elsewhere as driver for 19 months

On Tuesday, the man who was reluctant to return home, was reunited with his wife by Delhi Police’s crime branch, which traced him.

Afraid of his wife who often scolded him for drinking, a 35-year-old Delhi man left his job with a private firm and began working as a driver in Haryana’s Mewat at a much lesser salary for 19 months -- a period in which his wife knocked on the court’s doors and his friend was subjected to a polygraph test to know if he had anything to do with the disappearance.

Until April last year, the man lived with his wife and a son who was eight months back then. He worked for a paint firm and drew a salary of Rs 25,000. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO (Representative Image))

On Tuesday, the man who was reluctant to return home, was reunited with his wife by Delhi Police’s crime branch, which traced him.

“Thursday happened to be his 10th marriage anniversary,” said Monika Bhardwaj, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch). “We have got the man and his wife counselled so that he doesn’t run away from home again,” Bhardwaj added.

Until April last year, the man lived with his wife and a son who was eight months back then. He worked for a paint firm and drew a salary of Rs 25,000.

On the morning of April 12 last year, he left his home for work in Noida but did not return. A missing complaint was filed in Noida, but no headway was made.

The DCP said that the man’s wife suspected his close friend was behind his disappearance. As it turned out, one of the last calls made by the missing man was to this friend, asking him to hand over R10,000 to one of his relatives. “He had told the friend that he would return the money if he remained alive,” said the DCP.

In any case, the missing man remained untraced and his wife knocked the doors of the Delhi High Court earlier this year. “She filed a writ petition to seek a habeas corpus for production of her husband,” the DCP said.

On October 15, the court asked the Delhi Police’s crime branch to submit a status report on the investigation carried out so far.

The police registered a first information report of kidnapping and then focused their attention to his friend who was accused of having a hand in his disappearance. “The friend was subjected to a polygraph test, which revealed he had nothing to do with the disappearance,” the DCP said.

The police questioned his parents, relatives and friends and took their call detail records (CDRs) for an analysis. The missing man’s CDR too was collected, but the call records for the relevant time frame couldn’t be collected since more than a year had passed.

“But Noida Police had taken out his CDR back then. We used that to make a shortlist and identify one person to whom he had made a call using his number,” said the DCP.

Soon, the police team landed at a construction site in Mewat where the missing man was learnt to be working as a labourer. “It turned out that the man was mainly employed as a driver at the construction site, albeit at much lower pay. He just wanted to be away from his wife,” said the DCP.

It took the Delhi Police a lot of convincing to bring him back to Delhi. “We have done our to ensure he doesn’t run away again,” Bhardwaj said.