Alappuzha: Parents of a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan, Shibin Thomas, here say their son is missing. But a BSF officer admitted he was under their custody. Thomas John and Rosamma of Aryad North said all their efforts to contact him, a constable with 28th battalion of BSF, for the last couple of days failed. They suspect he is in custody at BSF base in Raiganj in West Bengal, pending an inquiry into alleged misbehaving with Dr Rohan Kumar, a general duty medical officer.
They say he was on duty until 11 am Monday when the battalion commandant summoned to ask him to cooperate with the probe team. But he insisted on a new team under an IPS officer. "Since then, we have no information," Mr John, who fear for his security, said. "We keep trying to get in touch with him. But he does not pick up the phone." He got dismissed in December 2015 without pensionary benefits after he filed an RTI petition with the home ministry on corrupt practices prevalent in the 41st battalion (his previous battalion).
DC had reported this on January 11. He was reinstated pending enquiry in December after the parents sent a petition to the PMO. They have no trust in the present probe by the same corrupt officers. In the RTI application, he wanted to know the quantum of money allocated to the 41st battalion, Maheshpur, Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal for 2014-15 and 2015-16 and how it was spent on each jawan. He got a reply that it was not under the RTI Act. He was reinstated after their letter to PMO. The soldier is married to Sophia, a school teacher. When DC contacted BSF base in Raiganj, the second in command admitted that he was in custody, but gave no details.
