Koraput: Boarding the wrong train could be costly; a villager from Odisha learned this lesson in the hard way.

However, the ordeal of Basupati Muduli, who is now 40, ended seven years later when a retired army man found him wandering aimlessly in Punjab.

Muduli had left his home in Dokeribeda village in Odisha’s Koraput district with two villagers in search of work in Jharsuguda. After working as laborer for two years there, the other two returned home but Muduli boarded a wrong train by mistake and reached Chandigarh.

Koraput assistant labor officer Prasanna Panigrahi, who was on the rescue team, said Muduli worked two years in Chandigarh. As Muduli spoke only Odia, he failed to tell people his address and after few days was engaged on the farmland of a man near Chandigarh.

He then joined a nomad group of the Gujjar community and went to Mahindral village on the border of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Panigrahi said Muduli would graze the community’s cattle. He was denied food and tortured physically. Gradually, he started behaving abnormally and a retired army man spotted him wandering helplessly at Mahindral.

The soldier took Muduli to hospital and contacted officers of the Dasmantpur police station, who informed Muduli’s family subsequently about his whereabouts.

Muduli, who returned to his native place on April 7, was in tears. “I had lost all hope of returning to my village. If today I am here, it is because of the retired army officer” he told The Hindustan Times.

Koraput collector Yamini Sarangi said they came to know about Muduli on March 30 and set up a special team of labor officers and police to rescue the long lost man.