HAM users set to reunite UP woman with family

Kolkata: A 30-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh, identified as Meenakshi Chaurasia, missing for nearly five months after suffering severe mental trauma, is set to reunite with her family due to the combined efforts of Habra Police and HAM radio volunteers. Her relatives from Prayagraj have begun travelling to a shelter home in Habra, North 24-Parganas, to bring her home, ending an anxious search that stretched across states and relied on close coordination between law enforcement and volunteer networks.

The family of Chaurasia, also known as Usha Devi, belongs to Bansiyari village in Pratapgarh district, UP. Police said her identity remained unknown for weeks because she was disoriented, spoke incoherently, and could not provide clear details about where she lived.

Her ordeal came to light when personnel from Habra police station found her wandering aimlessly on the streets. Unable to confirm her name or address through routine questioning, the police rescued her and ensured she received care. She was first taken to a municipal home and later admitted to a shelter facility under the Habra municipality, where she stayed for nearly a month while undergoing medical treatment. Even with sustained efforts, officials could not establish who she was or how she had reached West Bengal.

With conventional tracing methods failing to deliver results, the police sought help from members of the West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC). Because the woman spoke only Hindi, HAM radio operators focused their outreach on Hindi-speaking regions and activated contacts across multiple states. For seven consecutive days, they circulated whatever limited clues were available, coordinating in real time through amateur radio networks. The effort eventually led them to her relatives in Pratapgarh.

As her identity became clearer, a tragic backstory emerged. Around four months ago, she reportedly witnessed her husband, Anil Chaurasia, being run over and killed by a train in front of her. The shock is believed to have destabilised her mental health. Local sources also pointed to a grim coincidence: years earlier, her father had died in a railway accident near the same location.

Family members said that after her husband’s death she gradually lost touch with reality and then disappeared. She is the mother of two sons, aged about 10 and 11. Her husband had run a tea stall in Noida and had returned to the village with the family when the fatal accident occurred. With both her parents also deceased, her disappearance left relatives and her children distraught.

A decisive breakthrough came when HAM radio volunteers facilitated a video call between the woman and her family. During the call, she recognised her brothers and other relatives, and identified her two sons by name on seeing them. However, she still could not recall her home address. Despite that, the confirmation was enough for her relatives to proceed to Habra and complete the process of taking her home.