DEHRADUN: A poignant chapter from the 1971 Indo-Pak War has resurfaced in Uttarakhand, as the family of a young soldier has filed a missing person report nearly five and a half decades after he disappeared while serving his nation.
Hukam Singh, then a Sepoy in the Indian Army, was stationed near Dehradun when fate intervened with the outbreak of the conflict.
He had married just one day before the war erupted. On December 3, 1971, Hukam Singh tied the knot with Rajwati from the nearby village of Ithana. The very next day, December 4, duty called.
Leaving his newlywed bride behind, the devoted soldier departed for his unit in Roorkee to join the front lines. For over five decades, Hukam Singh remained untraced.
His father, Gunder Singh, desperately searched for him.
Tragically, his wife, Rajwati, unable to bear the uncertainty, passed away in 1972. The case took a surprising turn recently when Hukam Singh’s nephew, Vikram Singh, decided to pursue the matter.
Vikram Singh travelled to Roorkee seeking information about his missing maternal uncle. "We discovered that the Army had declared him a 'deserter'," Vikram Singh told this daily.
This declaration, coming after a soldier left to fight a war, has deeply distressed the family.
Now, nearly 56 years later, Vikram Singh has formally registered a missing person report at the Rani Pokhri Police Station for his uncle, who would now be around 82 years old, urging the police to launch a full-scale search.
The family has also been embroiled in a battle over Hukam Singh’s property. Vikram Singh explained that after his uncle was declared absent, family members began cultivating his approximately 22 'bighas' of land.
"A local land mafia created fake documents in my uncle’s name at the Registrar's office and illegally sold his 22 'bighas' of land for crores of rupees to a person named Bhupinder from Dehradun," Vikram Singh alleged.
The family successfully registered a case against the alleged land mafia, leading to their arrest.
"We are still ploughing that land and growing crops to support our family," Vikram Singh added, emphasising their continued connection to the soldier's legacy.
The filing of the missing report now seeks justice and answers for a soldier who vanished serving his country, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions and unresolved property disputes.
