The Central Bureau of Investigation has taken over the case of Subhash Chandra Bose, a 27-year-old man from Kerala who disappeared while travelling by train to his posting with the Tripura State Rifles in April 2012, following an order of the Kerala High Court.
Bose, a native of Vengoor in Ernakulam district, was serving as a rifleman with the Third Battalion of the Tripura State Rifles in Dhalai district. He had completed seven years with the force when he went missing while returning to Tripura after leave, officials said.
The case was transferred to the CBI after Bose’s father, P K Balan, approached the Kerala High Court. The court issued its direction last month, requiring the agency to take over investigations into both the case registered by the Ernakulam Railway Police and the subsequent case handled by the Government Railway Police in Visakhapatnam.
The CBI Special Crime Branch filed a re-registered first information report before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on October 28, officials said. The development brings together investigations that had been registered in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh after Bose disappeared during the long-distance journey.
According to the CBI, Bose boarded the Ernakulam-Guwahati Express, Train No. 12507, from Ernakulam Junction at 9.20 pm on April 3, 2012. He was travelling on a general ticket because he did not have a reservation. Balan had accompanied his son to the railway station and got down at Aluva after Bose told him that he would try to arrange a seat with the help of the Travelling Ticket Examiner.
Bose spoke to his mother by phone on April 4 and told her that he had reached Andhra Pradesh. The following day, he called again and said that his mobile recharge balance was running low. He told his family that he would contact them after reaching his workplace, but no further call was received from him.
The family learnt on April 10 that Bose had not reported for duty at his unit in Dhalai district. Balan filed a complaint at the Ernakulam Railway Police Station on April 13, after which a missing-person case was registered. During the investigation, railway police found that Bose had last been seen alive at Visakhapatnam Railway Station.
The matter was subsequently transferred to the Government Railway Police in Visakhapatnam, which re-registered it as a missing-person case on October 15, 2012. The Kerala High Court has now directed the CBI to investigate both cases as part of the agency’s takeover.
