Amateur HAM radio operators unite freed woman with ‘lost’ husband after 15 years
The Statesman | 25 November 2025
After serving 14 years in a correctional home and being released early for good conduct, Shakuntala Lamchani (now 42) spent another year shuffling from one jail to another as she had no home or relatives in the outside world to go to. But now, if things work out, she will be united with her “lost” husband, thanks to the persistence of amateur HAM operators who finally located him.
She shuttled between Midnapore and Dum Dum since June last year as “none from her family had come forward to take her back,” said Anirudha Ghosh, Welfare Officer of Midnapore Central Correctional Home. She was recently shifted to the Dum Dum Correctional Home, where the West Bengal Radio Club was informed by the jail authorities to assist tracing the locations of Shakuntala’s family members.
Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the Radio Club, said: “It was a very challenging task as we didn’t have much details of the woman incarcerated 15 years ago. Our operators in different districts were assigned to find her kin.” He added: “A few days back, our operator in Kurseong could locate her sister Anju Ghising, but she rebuked our man and refused to accept her.”
Shakuntala was sentenced in 2010 after she pleaded guilty of having killed her mother Tika Maya by throwing a stone at her in a fit of rage while she was in the kitchen. Her action was apparently sparked when her mother instructed her to adjust with her in-laws at Salua near Kharagpur in West Midnapore.
The Correctional Home officials, after scrutinising her conduct in jail, prescribed an early release. Welfare Officer Ghosh told The Statesman: “She was shortlisted for a premature release on parole for her decent behaviour in the Home. But the trouble was none from her family wanted her back. It is not possible to release an inmate if no proper address can be recorded at the time of discharge.”
Shakuntala’s parents are no more, her sister denied taking her, her brother didn’t respond, and her son, it was learnt later, is based in Dubai and could not be contacted. Ghosh said there is a daughter in Kalimpong, but she pleaded helplessness as her in-laws declined to accommodate a ‘murderer’ in their family.
With bits and pieces of information collected from the reluctant relatives, the West Bengal Radio Club (HAM radio) volunteers finally located her husband, Sujit Lamchani, who is a CISF Jawan posted at Bengaluru airport. The volunteers finally managed to make contact with her ‘lost’ husband a few days ago.
The Dum Dum Correctional Home’s Welfare Officer, Pampa Chakraborty Pal, recently received an appeal from Sujit. The CISF jawan furnished his entire details and stated: “My wife currently is in your custody and I am ready to receive her, as my son Siddharth is in Dubai and my married daughter Shweta is in Kalimpong.”
On Saturday, the Dum Dum authorities responded, asking the jawan to appear before the officials for physical verification and identification by Shakuntala on 28 November.