<div>In the dark of the night, hope returned to Kailash Chand Yadav’s family in Alwar town of Rajasthan, 155 km from here. <br /><br />At 1am last Saturday, Yadav’s son Dharamveer knocked on the door nearly seven years after he went missing and four years after the army declared him dead. <br /><br />A soldier (sainik) with the 66 Arms and Corps Regiment in Dehradun, Dharamveer went missing after an Ambassador he was travelling in met with an accident on November 27, 2009. <br /><br />The army declared him dead in November 2012 after they failed to recover his body, and soon an order for issuing a regular pension of Rs 8,000 to his wife Manju Devi was released.<br /><br />For Manju, Dharamveer’s return was nothing short of “walking in a dream” as she woke up to his presence in the dead of the night. Clad in a white saree–worn by widows–Manju, who was fast asleep next to her daughters Sangeeta (19) and Pushpa (17), woke up to see Dharamveer alive, but in a wretched condition. <br /><br />The soldier told his family that he lost memory in the accident and that he was living on the ghats of Haridwar, dressed like a beggar. Dharamveer claimed that he regained memory after he met with another accident when a bike hit him in Haridwar. <br /><br />An emotional Manju could barely complete a sentence, and Dharamveer’s mother Antra Devi, too, was in tears when asked to speak about her son. District Army Welfare Officer (Alwar), R P Yadav, told DH: “Dharamveer was declared dead after the army could not recover his body. Since 2012, his wife Manju Devi is being given a regular pension of Rs 8,000. As soon as his family informed me about his arrival, I forwarded the message to the headquarters.” <br /><br />Dharamveer’s nephew Neeraj told DH: “His return has brought joy, but he is physically weak and interacts very less. Looking at his condition it seems like he has spent his last 7 years in trauma after losing his identity and memory.”</div>
<div>In the dark of the night, hope returned to Kailash Chand Yadav’s family in Alwar town of Rajasthan, 155 km from here. <br /><br />At 1am last Saturday, Yadav’s son Dharamveer knocked on the door nearly seven years after he went missing and four years after the army declared him dead. <br /><br />A soldier (sainik) with the 66 Arms and Corps Regiment in Dehradun, Dharamveer went missing after an Ambassador he was travelling in met with an accident on November 27, 2009. <br /><br />The army declared him dead in November 2012 after they failed to recover his body, and soon an order for issuing a regular pension of Rs 8,000 to his wife Manju Devi was released.<br /><br />For Manju, Dharamveer’s return was nothing short of “walking in a dream” as she woke up to his presence in the dead of the night. Clad in a white saree–worn by widows–Manju, who was fast asleep next to her daughters Sangeeta (19) and Pushpa (17), woke up to see Dharamveer alive, but in a wretched condition. <br /><br />The soldier told his family that he lost memory in the accident and that he was living on the ghats of Haridwar, dressed like a beggar. Dharamveer claimed that he regained memory after he met with another accident when a bike hit him in Haridwar. <br /><br />An emotional Manju could barely complete a sentence, and Dharamveer’s mother Antra Devi, too, was in tears when asked to speak about her son. District Army Welfare Officer (Alwar), R P Yadav, told DH: “Dharamveer was declared dead after the army could not recover his body. Since 2012, his wife Manju Devi is being given a regular pension of Rs 8,000. As soon as his family informed me about his arrival, I forwarded the message to the headquarters.” <br /><br />Dharamveer’s nephew Neeraj told DH: “His return has brought joy, but he is physically weak and interacts very less. Looking at his condition it seems like he has spent his last 7 years in trauma after losing his identity and memory.”</div>
