Ghaziabad: On Wednesday, one family in Vaishali mourned a son they believed was dead. They performed his ‘tehrvi’, garlanded his photograph and tried to make peace with loss.By Thursday morning, that grief had turned into disbelief. Girdhar Bisht (40), missing for over a month and presumed murdered, stepped out of an autorickshaw and walked back home alive.But as one family found relief, another in the same housing society was left confronting the scars of an allegation of murder that never actually happened.For Shailesh Verma, one of the seven men named in the FIR, Bisht’s return ended one nightmare but not the damage it caused.“A father coming home should comfort a child. My daughter begged me not to step outside. She thought police would take me away again,” Shailesh told TOI.His Class IV daughter, Annu, had watched her father disappear for days after police picked him up for questioning in a murder case built around a body Bisht’s own family had identified as his.The story began on May 16, when Bisht allegedly got into a violent altercation with three brothers — Shailesh, Sunil and Dharmendra — who run an automobile repair shop near Kalpana society in Vaishali Sector 5.Police said Bisht attacked Shailesh with a hammer, leaving him with a head wound that needed 12 stitches. He was arrested the next day under preventive sections linked to breach of peace and sent to Dasna jail.Bisht’s family, who claimed he struggled with mental illness and erratic behaviour, visited him in jail. On May 21, he was released on a personal bond. But he never returned home.Weeks later, on June 12, police recovered an unidentified body from the Nahal Jhal stretch of Masuri canal. Bisht’s mother and sisters identified it as his.What followed changed everything.An FIR was lodged against seven men under BNS sections for murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The accused were detained for two days and questioned.Though two autopsies found no external injuries and pointed to drowning, the family went ahead with the cremation. On Wednesday, they held Bisht’s ‘tehrvi’.Less than 24 hours later, he returned.“He paid the auto driver and stopped when he saw his own garlanded photograph,” a neighbour said.Shailesh, originally from Gorakhpur, lives with his two brothers, their wives and eight children. He said the murder allegations against the brothers turned neighbours hostile overnight.“People stared at us like criminals. Some abused us. We stopped stepping out,” he said.After their release, cops advised them to stay away from NCR while the inquiry continued. Their phones were seized. For 10 days, the family moved from one relative’s house to another.“Some refused to keep us for long once they heard we had been accused of murder. Others stopped answering calls,” Shailesh said.Their garage — the family’s only source of income — was shut after objections from society residents. When a relative tried reopening it, police were called again and the shutters downed.Bisht’s mother and sisters declined comment. Kalpana society RWA president Ravindra Rawat also refused to speak.ACP Ajay Singh said Bisht has been questioned and the murder FIR will now be closed. “Our immediate focus is to identify the body that was cremated in his name,” he added.For one family, the ‘dead’ came home. For another, the living are still trying to return to normal.
