Kolkata: A Kolkata family's vacation in Jammu and Kashmir three years ago in 2022 has spiralled into a complex case of alleged kidnapping involving a 19-year-old second-year BCom student from north Kolkata and a bus driver from Jammu.
During the family's trip to Kashmir, their daughter developed feelings for Deepak, the bus driver. Upon returning to Kolkata, she and Deepak kept in touch through regular phone and video calls. When Deepak came to Kolkata this June, the young woman left her home — on June 24 — ostensibly for college, only to vanish without a trace. Her distraught parents filed a missing person report at the Chitpur PS, where the father said he left his daughter at the 4B auto stand on way to her north Kolkata college.
The parents received sporadic WhatsApp communications from their daughter, who assured them of her safety but remained mum about her exact whereabouts. Despite their pleas she remained out of reach as the calls dried up. The case took a new direction on Monday when the parents received a WhatsApp link to a hotel in Dibrugarh, Assam, suggesting that their daughter might be there. This prompted them to file a formal complaint, accusing Deepak of kidnapping and unlawfully detaining their daughter. The police, acting on this complaint, have initiated a probe, focusing on the hotel link as a potential lead and are sending a team to Dibrugarh. "We also contacted the local police, who searched the hotel but did not find her there," said an investigating officer.
The case has raised concerns about the student's safety as well as the legal implications of the alleged actions of Deepak.