CBI takes over probe into Tripura rifleman missing from train since 2012

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the investigation into the disappearance of a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawan who went missing on a train journey back to his unit more than 14 years ago, PTI reported on Sunday, quoting officials.

The Kerala High Court handed the case to the central agency last month after the missing man's father petitioned it. The CBI's Special Crime Branch registered a fresh FIR before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Ernakulam on October 28.

Who is missing

Subhash Chandra Bose, then 27, was a rifleman with the 3rd Battalion of the TSR and had served in the force for seven years. He belonged to Vengoor in Kerala's Ernakulam district and was heading back to Tripura at the end of his leave when he disappeared in April 2012. His unit was based in Tripura's Dhalai district.

The last journey

According to the CBI's account, Bose boarded the Ernakulam-Guwahati Express (train no. 12507) at Ernakulam Junction at about 9.20 pm on April 3, 2012. He had no reserved berth and was travelling on a general ticket.

His father, P K Balan, travelled with him as far as Aluva and got off there, the FIR says. Bose told him he would try to get a seat through the travelling ticket examiner.

Officials told PTI that Bose phoned his mother on April 4 to say he had reached Andhra Pradesh. He called again the next day and said the balance on his phone was running low, promising to get in touch once he reached his workplace. That was the last call the family received.

Two missing-person cases

On April 10, 2012, the family found out that Bose had never reported for duty at his unit in Dhalai. Balan filed a complaint at the Ernakulam Railway Police Station on April 13, and a missing-person case was registered.

Railway police later established that Bose was last seen alive at Visakhapatnam railway station. The case was then shifted to the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Visakhapatnam, which registered it afresh as a missing-person case on October 15, 2012.

The high court has asked the CBI to take up both cases, the one registered by the Ernakulam Railway Police and the one registered by the GRP in Visakhapatnam, as part of a single probe into what happened to Bose.

What happens next

The transfer puts a central agency on a cross-state case that has stayed unresolved for more than a decade, spanning Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura. Officials have not said what new lines of inquiry the CBI plans to follow. NEInsider will update this story as the investigation progresses.