Vrindavan: Two youths, one from Maharashtra and the other from Kasganj, who travelled to Vrindavan with the desire to seek the blessings of Saint Premanand Maharaj have gone missing at different times. Their families suspect that, driven by religious faith, the young men may have stayed back at the ashram or in the surrounding area. Despite filing missing person reports at the respective police stations, the families have not yet found any concrete leads. They have been searching everywhere, from the lanes of Vrindavan to the local police station and the vicinity of the ashram.
Om Parmeshwar Takpire, the 20-year-old only son of Ujjwala Takpire, a resident of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra—left home on July 21 to visit Vrindavan. According to his family, he had expressed a wish to seek the blessings of Saint Premanand Maharaj. He never returned home. After being unable to contact her son for a prolonged period, his mother filed a missing person report at the local police station and began searching for him.
Ujjwala arrived in Vrindavan on July 23 to search for Om. She spent several days looking for him at the Kailikunj Ashram and the surrounding areas. The family states that Om was spotted in CCTV footage linked to the ashram, but there is no information regarding where he went afterwards. Ujjwala has visited Vrindavan multiple times in search of her son. Her anxiety has deepened following the news of the death of Rasik Dulari Sharan, a devotee associated with Kailikunj, on September 25. She has now arrived in Vrindavan for the fourth time to continue the search.
The second case involves the Awas Vikas Colony in Kasganj. Mayank Singh Chauhan, the 16-year-old son of local resident Chandrapal Singh Chauhan, left home on August 7, stating he was going to Vrindavan for a pilgrimage. He did not return thereafter. The family searched extensively but could not locate Mayank.
According to his family, Mayank held deep faith in Saint Premanand Maharaj and regularly engaged in naam-jaap (chanting the holy name). Consequently, his father suspects that he might be staying at an ashram in Vrindavan or somewhere nearby. After filing a missing person report at the Kasganj police station, Chandrapal Singh Chauhan has been making repeated trips to Vrindavan to search for his son.
In both cases, the families have urged the police and administration to intensify the search for the youths. They point out that there is a constant influx of devotees and ascetics in Vrindavan; therefore, the search for the missing youths should be conducted using CCTV footage and locally available information. The families have also appealed to the management of the concerned ashrams for cooperation to ensure the youths’ safe return home.
