Watch: Tears of joy as family gets back journalist Utpal Das

Journalist Utpal’s story is more or less akin to other people who managed to come back to their near and dear ones after their disappearance, over the last few months. None of them could recognize the faces of their abductors or identify them. Utpal Das had been missing for the last two months and was dropped off by several unidentified persons at Bhulota in Narayanganj Tuesday night. “Abductors blindfolded me and put me in a car on Tuesday. They roamed around for three to four hours and then dropped me off in Adhuria,” he said, when reporters approached him for his accounts.

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“They asked me to open my eyes only after they left the area.” The abductors picked Utpal up from Motijheel area in Dhaka by a microbus on October 10, he said, adding that they confined him inside a dark room all the time and used to provide meals to him regularly. Utpal said kidnappers thought of him as a wealthy man and demanded money as ransom. “I had been locked up all the time. And I used to sleep on the floor as there was no bed in the room.” The journalist also said he heard the abductors whispering about law enforces’ move to trace his whereabouts.

Utpal Das, sitting on the front porch of his village house in Narsingdi, shares his experience during the period he was abducted by some unidentified men Dhaka TribuneResponding to a query about being online during this period, he said: “Those who abducted me took away my mobile phone. “I do not know what happened next. As I did not have my phone with me during by incarceration, I was not the one using apps like Facebook and Viber at that time.” Earlier, Aniruddha Roy, a businessman who had been missing for 83 days, narrated similar stories upon returning home on November 18, and he was said to have been kidnapped over a rivalry centering on business.

Tears of joy

After knowing about the matter, his parents and sister rushed to Bhulota police station yesterday around 2:40am to take Utpal home. His mother expressed boundless joy after reuniting with her son. Utpal’s sister Binita Rani pointed out that a month ago a person introducing himself as Sub-inspector Ripon demanded money from the family, reportedly for Utpal’s treatment.

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She said the family received several phone calls demanding money when Utpal had been missing, but they refused to pay anything without talking to him. The journalist’s father Chittaranjan Das said: “We got back our son. That is all we wanted.” According to different human rights organisations and news reports, about 12 people, including scholars, businessmen and journalists disappeared in the past four months, and five managed to return home alive.Parts of the article were published on Bangla Tribune