E-Paper
Man reunites with family after two years, all thanks a Punjab cop’s TikTok video
For two years, R Venkateshwarlu’s family searched for him everywhere but in vain.
Every now and then, the Internet offers us a story that tugs on our heartstrings. This one, about a man reuniting with his family after two years thanks to a TikTok video is one such example.
It all started in 2018 when the man named, R Venkateshwarlu, went missing from Telengana, his home state, reports the BBC. He had boarded a truck to go to another village in search of work but never returned home.
“My father fell asleep and the truck driver didn’t know he was there. Several kilometres later, the driver realised my father was in the truck and so he dropped him off on the middle of the road and left him there,” R Peddiraju, his son, told the BBC.
For two years, his family searched for him everywhere but in vain. It was in a lucky twist of fate that a friend of Peddiraju’s saw a TikTok video shared by a cop from Punjab and identified Venkateshwarlu in it. He immediately alerted his friend, who got in touch with the local authorities to reach out to his father.
Punjab police constable Ajaib Singh often shares TikTok videos of him distributing food to people. In one of his videos, he recorded Venkateshwarlu.
In the video, you can see a man with a walking stick being offered food. When people try to ask him a few questions, he signs to them that he cannot hear or speak. This video helped the missing man reunite with his family.
Though police initially asked the family to wait till the lockdown is over, they eventually gave Peddiraju the permit to travel across states to bring his father home, understanding the sensitivity and urgency of the situation. The duo have since returned to their village safely.
“This is the first time that our father stayed away from us for this long. He lived only on rotis for the last two years, which he was not used to,” R Peddiraju told the BBC. “The first thing we’ll do now is feed him homemade hot rice,” he added.
