TIRUCHY: It was a happy reunion, for 50-year-old S Chinna Pappa of Tirupattur in Vellore district, after she went missing around 10 years back. Pappa, who has been suffering from mental illness, was handed over to her family by authorities here on Monday.
Pappa, wife of Subramanian, an agricultural coolie from East Vathanavadi in Tiruppattur, Vellore went missing in 2005.
Her husband, along with his children searched for her, but eventually lodged a complaint with Tirupattur police, as they were unable to trace her. Following the complaint, police circulated Pappa's photograph to all police stations across the state, but even that did not yeild any result.
Meanwhile, Anbalayam- a voluntary organisation involved in rescuing and rehabilitating of missing mentally ill persons in the city, received a call from Perambalur on August 16, 2014. The caller told the representatives of the organisation that a woman was found in their neighbourhood wandering for around a week.
Soon the workers from Anbalayam reached Perambalur and rescued the woman who did not even remember her name. Soon the volunteers took her back to Anbalayam in City and gave her first aid.
"We found that she had been suffering under severe psychophilia (a kind of mental disorder) due to chemical imbalance in brain and took her for medical treatment. She forgot her the details about her life and even her name and address",
TKS Senthilkumar, founder of Anbalayam told Express.
Later, she was kept under medical observation. "We went on speaking to her and wanted to get to know about her whereabouts. Slowly she recovered and started to utter her name as as Chinna Pappa a few months back and later her native village of Went Vathanavadi, a remote village in Vellore district", said Maheswari, a nurse from Anbalayam.
Later, the Anbalayam volunteers searched for her relatives through Tirupattur police. On Monday, the relatives including her husband Subramanian, daughter Kavitha sister Saroja reached Anbalayam, with the help of the police.
"As soon as Chinna Pappa saw her relatives she ran towards them and started weeping. It was an emotional reunion for everyone involved and it took us a long time for us to console everyone. At last we were happy to make a family reunite", said Senthilkumar.
Interestingly, a year after Chinna Pappa left the house, her daughter Kavitha's marriage was held and the entire family thought and were on the opinion that the woman was dead.
Later, Chinna Pappa was handed over to her family in front of the district social differently-abled welfare officer Swaminathan and district Mental health Officer Dr Geetha.
The much elated Chinna Pappa who could not control her tears expressed happiness to join her family members.