Aniruddha returns

Aniruddha Roy, a businessman who went missing nearly three months ago has returned home. However, it would help everyone to know the identity of his 'benefactors' who took the trouble of dropping him home in the very early hours of the morning. But Aniruddha's return, although a great relief for the family, and his subsequent written statement to the media, have raised several questions in our minds, as has the disappearance of all the others.

Aniruddha is among the fifty nine people who have disappeared since August 22 this year under doubtful circumstances. Of them eight have returned. Two of them are political figures who were shown arrested seventeen days after they had gone missing.

The circumstances of these disappearances are suspicious. Some of them were picked up in broad daylight from the streets like Aniruddha, or from home at night. And almost all the victims' relatives point to the law enforcing agencies as the abductors. 

It is strange that most of those who are lucky enough to return are absolutely tightlipped about what had happened to them in the interregnum. We wonder why? Is it a loss of memory or fear of greater retribution should they open their mouth? Is there a correlation, or is it mere coincidence, that the two arrests and one reappearance, happened soon after the very self-assured statement of the home minister that the law enforcers would find those who had gone missing or they would return? 

Abductions and disappearances engender a climate of fear in the public mind. Aniruddha has pointed fingers at some people. And the matter must be investigated thoroughly, most of all for the credibility of the system and public confidence in it. Furtive actions, as a matter of routine, is counterproductive, and may be replicated by criminal gangs.