TN boy flees home after fight with bro over moped, rescued from Punjab village 23 yrs later

A dispute over who would ride a family moped escalated into a 23-year nightmare of separation for Prakash and his family. Now 39, Prakash has finally returned home to Coimbatore to the embrace of his mother and brother, after being rescued from a Punjab farm near the Pakistan border where he was kept in chains for nearly two decades.

It was in 2003 when Prakash, then a 16-year-old student, got into an argument with his younger brother Prabhu over their father's moped. Following a mild scolding from their mother, Sundari, a hurt Prakash walked out of their home in Kavundampalayam, Coimbatore. He never returned. His parents, Ramamoorthy and Sundari, searched desperately for years, and eventually relocated to Neelambur. Four years ago, Ramamoorthy passed away, but Sundari, surviving on domestic work, clung to the hope of seeing her eldest son again.

Prakash’s journey of survival had led him to board several trains, eventually landing in Punjab. There, he met a buffalo farm owner in Amritsar’s Jasraur village, barely 10 km from the Pakistan border. For 19 years, he was forced to toil day and night. He was also chained to an iron cot in the night, and fed only one meal a day. The isolation and trauma stripped him of his language, memory, and sense of self.

His ordeal ended on July 16, 2022 when Apna Farz Sewa Society, a human rights organisation, found him during an inspection. Ragged, and physically broken, Prakash was rushed to the Patiala Government Medical College Hospital. Over months of intensive psychological and medical care, Prakash began speaking a few fractured Tamil words, giving rescuers the breakthrough they needed to trace his identity back to Coimbatore.

Tracing his family proved exceptionally difficult. When the rescue organisation contacted Sundari via video call, she immediately recognised her son. However, she had no official identity documents for him other than an old ration card and school records from Coimbatore. A formal petition to the Coimbatore Collector finally bypassed the bureaucratic hurdles, paving the way for Prakash’s return.

Backed by the volunteers, Sundari travelled to Punjab to bring her son home. The reunion was charged with emotion, especially when Prakash came face to face with his younger brother, Prabhu. In a touching gesture, Prabhu showed Prakash a surprise he had kept safe all these years: the very same moped that had triggered their childhood dispute, preserved as a symbol of love and a tool to help spark Prakash’s fractured memories.