Stampede survivors make it home amid joy and disbelief | India News

PRAYAGRAJ: Even as there are many families still waiting for their missing relatives to contact them in the aftermath of the stampede at the Maha Kumbh on Jan 29, there are several others who got lucky, reports Rajeev Mani.
“My grandfather went to Kumbh along with 14 other members of the village and, while all the others came back, he was untraceable since Jan 29. With the worst foreboding in heart, I came to Prayagraj on Friday and began looking for him while my friend posted a reel on Instagram with his details. I even searched the mortuary but, today (Saturday), I got a call from home that he is back with the help of someone,” Brijesh, a govt teacher at Siddharthnagar, said. “Our happiness knew no bounds; we are organising a puja at home and have invited the entire village for a feast,” he added.
“We were worried because neither was he carrying any phone nor did he remember our mobile numbers,” Brijesh, who was heading back to his village, said.
There was immense relief in the voice of Uddhav Roy, a policeman from West Bengal. “My grandmother, Binata Mohanti, 69, went to the Maha Kumbh with a group of 70 people in a bus from Majura in Purulia. After the stampede, all but four went missing. Three of the group members were found the same day, while my grandma was still missing. We got a call on Friday night that she is in Gorakhpur. I don’t know how she reached there. My father Ramraghav and cousin Sachin have left for Gorakhpur to bring her back,” Roy told TOI over phone from Purulia.
A special prayer was being held at the house of Abhai Kumar Mishra from Ethura in UP’s Deoria, when TOI called up to inquire about Sunita Mishra, 58, who was missing since the stampede. Happily for the family, even as 10 fellow pilgrims from the village were searching for her back in Prayagraj, she managed to reach nearest railway station, Salempur, on her own on Jan 30.