Lost for nearly three decades, Jharkhand woman’s homecoming ends in heartbreak over religion

For nearly three decades, Sushila Murmu lived in quiet anonymity at a shelter home in south Kolkata, her memories fading but her longing for family intact. According to a TOI report, this week, volunteers finally traced her roots to Dahupagar village in Jharkhand’s Godda district. What should have been a reunion, however, turned into heartbreak.

Murmu’s son, Madan Besra, refused to take her home unless she agreed to renounce Christianity and embrace Hinduism - a condition she firmly declined.

It was religion, villagers say, that had driven her away years ago.


Murmu had converted to Christianity before her marriage. After her husband, a Hindu farmer, died, neighbours allegedly objected to a Christian widow remaining in the village.

Soon after, she disappeared.

A reunion that fell apart

Murmu has little recollection of how she reached Kolkata.

In 2001, she was found by a member of the Missionaries of Charity and brought to a shelter run by the order. Over time, it became her refuge.

Staff members say she would often speak of her husband, though details of her past were hazy.

Her story reached Ambarish Nag Biswas of the West Bengal Radio Club through a shelter employee. Volunteers circulated her photograph across amateur radio networks, eventually tracing her to Dahupagar under Poriahat police station.

A video call was arranged between mother and son - their first interaction in at least 25 years, TOI further reported.

According to Murmu, Besra told her he would only accept her if she converted. “I will not leave my religion,” she said quietly after the call, describing it as their final exchange.

“He told me that he would not take me back unless I changed my religion. But I will not leave my religion. That was my last word with him," she told TOI.

Biswas quoted Besra as saying that while his father wore a cross after marriage, he never changed his faith. “If she doesn’t convert, there will be trouble at home,” he reportedly told volunteers.

"I told her that I am a Hindu and she should get converted now. My father and grandfather were Hindus. He (his father) might have married a Christian but he never changed his religion," he added.

The episode has drawn the attention of local authorities.

Vikesh Kumar, mukhiya of Liladha panchayat, said he was unaware that Murmu had left the village years ago. "Dahupagar is next to my village and I know Madan Besra. But I did not know that his mother had left home."

Poriahat police station’s officer-in-charge, Mahavir Pandit, has said he will visit the village to speak with the family.

For now, Murmu remains at the Kolkata shelter - close to the family she found in exile, yet far from the one she once knew.