Worker on way home for SIR missing from Pune rly station
The Statesman | 18 November 2025
A migrant labourer from Kalna, on his way back home, has mysteriously disappeared from Pune railway station in Maharashtra 10 days ago, and his family still remains clueless about his whereabouts.
Nepal Sheikh (35), hailing from New Madhuban locality of Kalna town in East Burdwan, was serving as a mason’s help in Pune for over a month. He, along with his colleague Tapan Mondal of the same Kalna town, had left their workplace on 8 November for home as they wanted to submit the Special Intensive Revision enumeration forms, the family members said.
“We reached Pune railway station together and were scheduled to board the Azad Hind Express to reach Howrah,” said Tapan today. “On reaching the station, Nepal suddenly asked me to change the train, which I didn’t agree to, and boarded my scheduled train, disappointing him.”
Tapan claimed that Nepal then left the platform. “I arrived at Kalna on 11 November and I guessed that he’d also have returned home by that time. But I was shocked to hear that he was yet to reach. I still don’t understand why he wanted to change his scheduled train, and why he still hasn’t reached Kalna.”
Nepal’s anxious family members too seemed confused about the youth’s ‘suspicious’ disappearance. They have already brought the matter to the notice of the local police station in Kalna, but the police, according to Nepal’s mother, are yet to register a complaint about her son’s disappearance. She alleged: “The police instructed me to go to Pune and lodge a complaint there.” The SP, East Burdwan, Sayak Das, said: “We are looking for further details about this. Enquiries are being made.”
Nepal’s mother said: “I had a conversation with my son on 8 November for the last time when he’d told me that he was on his way to the railway station.” After that, his cellphone remained switched off, she added.
A migrant labourer from Binnaguri, Jalpaiguri, Dipu Das had also disappeared mysteriously on 1 August. His decomposed body was recovered later.