'Missing' Army Captain makes surprise appearance after a week

KATIHAR (BIHAR): A week after he went missing from a train on way to New Delhi from here, Army Captain Sikhardeep today appeared before Faizabad police in Uttar Pradesh.

"I have talked to Captain Sikhardeep over phone. He is in Kotwali police station of Faizabad district and he is fine. The army personnel took him to Dogra cantonment (in Faizabad)," Superintendent of Railway Police (SRP) Jitendra Kumar Mishra told PTI.

Mishra said Sikhardeep called his sister on her mobile in Katihar this morning and informed her that he was at Kotwali police station of Faizabad.

She then informed their father Anant Kumar, a Lt Col-rank officer posted at Ranchi, who in turn told the SRP about his son's sudden appearance at Faizabad.

Mishra said Shikhardeep told him that he got off Mahananda Express at Patna Junction to drink water and lost consciousness thereafter.

When he regained consciousness, the Captain said he found himself tied to a chair at an unknown place. He managed to free himself, ran a few kilometres and then took Kamakhya Express.

However, the SRP said, the Army officer could not tell him the place where he boarded Kamakhya Express and where he got down from the train.

The Captain said he somehow reached Faizabad and went to Kotwali police station where he introduced himself.

Sikhardeep, who is posted in Jammu and Kashmir, had boarded Mahananda Express from Katihar on February 6 to go to New Delhi. His family had last spoken to him on phone that night but he did not reach Delhi.

The police team, which has been camping at Mugalsarai station to look for Sikhardeep, has been asked to reach Faizabad.

His brother-in-law, who had registered an FIR with Katihar GRP on February 9 about his disappearance, had also gone with the police team.

The 24-year-old Army officer, presently posted with 8th Sikh Light Infantry at Nowshera in Jammu and Kashmir, had come home for a month long holiday and was returning on February 6 by Mahananda Express.