Assam police rescue homeless man after concerned citizen tweets

Tinsukia: A tweet from a concerned citizen and a prompt police force resulted in making a difference in the life of a homeless person on Wednesday, bringing some cheer amid the COVID-19 gloom.

Assam police personnel on Wednesday rescued a homeless person from the roadside in Duliajan to a shelter home in Dibrugarh. Thanks to a tweet by good samaritan Sanjeev Saharan.

With overgrown hair and beard, torn clothes and wide open eyes, the plight of Dilbahadur could be seen in the pictures shared by Saharan.

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On Monday, Saharan tweeted about Dilbahadur lying on the roadside. “It’s really tough to save his life from weather, if someone can do something,” he tweeted while alerting chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

And within 48 hours, the Dibrugarh police tweeted back: “He has been shifted to Jagriti Sanmilita Unnayan Kendra.”

Officer-in-charge of Duliajan police station Rupjyoti Dutta told EastMojo that after getting an alert about a person in need of help, a team of Duliajan police, accompanied by circle officer Priyanka Gogoi and two civilians, rescued the person from a bus shelter near the old bus station in Duliajan town.

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“He was looking quite unhealthy as if he hasn’t eaten in days. We convinced and shifted him to a shelter run by an NGO in Dibrugarh for better care.”

Rohit Saikia, a local resident, helped police in the rescue mission. “The person could barely identify himself as Dilbahadur. He doesn’t seem to remember anything about his family or their whereabouts,” added Dutta.

“Dilbahadur was brought here at about 3.30 pm today. He was starving, so we immediately gave him something healthy to eat before making him bathe,” said Pintu Borah, the caretaker at Jagriti Sanmilita Unnayan Kendra, a home for homeless.

Borah said, “I tried to speak to him to find about his whereabouts but he seem to have lost his memory.”

The general secretary of the NGO Gautam Saikia said that five persons staying at the shelter home at present, including Dilbahadur. 

“Even though we started this home for needy persons in 2020 after sanctions from the government, we are yet to receive any funds and are dependent on contribution and donations from the citizens,” Gogoi added.

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