Their son vanished, then an imposter took over for 41 years...
Their son vanished, then an imposter took over for 41 years...
_125604369_01-3.jpg
A court in India has sent to prison a man who was found guilty of posing as the son of a wealthy landlord for 41 years. The BBC's Soutik Biswas pieces together a gripping tale of deceit and delay in justice. In February 1977, a teenage boy disappeared on his way home from school in the eastern state of Bihar. Kanhaiya Singh, the only son of an affluent and influential [I]zamindar (landlord) in Nalanda district, was returning from a second day of exams. His family lodged a missing person report with the police.
Efforts to find Kanhaiya came to naught. His ageing father slid into depression and began visiting quacks. A village shaman told him his son was alive and would "appear" soon. In September 1981, a man in his early 20s arrived in a village, barely 15km (9 miles) from where Kanhaiya lived. He was dressed in saffron and said he sang songs and begged for a living. He told the locals that he was the "son of a prominent person" of Murgawan, the missing boy's village.
What happened over the next four decades is a chilling tale of deception in which a man pretended to be the missing son of the landlord and inveigled himself into his house. Even as he was on bail, he assumed a new identity, went to college, got married, raised a family and secured multiple fake identities. Using these IDs, he voted, paid taxes, gave biometrics for a national identity card, got a gun licence and sold 37 acres of Singh's property. He steadfastly refused to provide a DNA sample to match with the landlord's daughter to prove that they were siblings. And in a move that stunned the court, he even tried to "kill" his original identity with a fake death certificate.
_125604367_11.jpg
_125603348_03-1.jpg
_125604373_10-2.jpg
_125603344_06-1.jpg
Reply With Quote
