‘Just like that 12 years went by’

After losing his phone while gambling in 2010, 17-year-old Md Suman did not return home, because he was afraid of facing his father.

Not for a day, a week, a month, or even a year -- he did not go back for 12 years.

At one point, his family filed a missing report and later an abduction case with Pallabi Police Station against five persons. Some of the accused had been arrested and interrogated on remand.

All the while, Suman was working at shops in Dhaka. He even got married and started living in Rayerbagh area.

Pallabi police, detectives, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) were struggling to locate him.

Finding no trace of Suman, they submitted final reports one after another. But his family filed no-confidence petitions against the reports, urging the law enforcers to find him.

Finally, a PBI team, led by Inspector Muhammad Torikul Islam, located Suman -- now aged around 29 -- from Kadamtali on Monday night, Jahangir Alam, special superintendent of (Dhaka metro-north) PBI, told a press briefing yesterday.

The SP said Suman studied up to seventh-grade at a local school and started working as a helper at a packaging factory.

On August 31, 2010, on his way to work, he lost Tk 100 while gambling in Mirpur-11 market area. As he did not have the money, the gamblers forcibly took his phone.

Instead of returning to his house in Pallabi, he went to Gulistan. A man who bought his phone from the gamblers has been arrested in the case, the SP said.

Besides working at several shops and a restaurant, he also used to sell food at Shahbagh and nearby places. He even worked as the helper of a bus, which carried school children and hospital staff, the officer said.

While working for the bus, he got acquainted with the mother of a student, developed a relationship with her, and got married four years ago. The couple, with a three-month-old baby, now stay in Rayerbagh, he added.

PBI Inspector Torikul said they got a lead on Suman after he intended to talk to his cousin Sagar last Eid. Suman asked his wife to call his father and get Sagar's phone number.

She then called her father-in-law, saying that she is related to Suman's wife. Hearing that, the father informed PBI, and the law enforcers finally managed to track Suman down.

Suman last called his family 11 days after he fled. He did not try to communicate ever since, as he could not figure out what he would tell them. And just like that, 12 years have passed, Torikul said, quoting Suman.