Bhagalpur, June 24: Relatives of a priest, who accompanied former minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey on his Uttarakhand journey, are clueless about the whereabouts of their kin and feel the BJP stalwart is not doing enough to bring him back.

Dinesh Chandra Jha (58), Choubey’s family priest, accompanied the former health minister to the northern state for rituals that the BJP leader had planned in Char Dham.

However, almost 10 days after the ruthless deluge hit Uttarakhand, Jha’s family is yet to know the whereabouts of the priest despite Choubey being brought to Delhi.

Since the news of the calamity broke, the priest’s mother Subadhra Devi (75) and wife Chintamani Devi (52), have not had food. According to them, Choubey and his family have been avoiding their repeated calls and no one has any clue whether the priest is still alive or not.

“None of them (the family members of Choubey) is speaking to us. My son has been associated with Choubey’s family for more than 15 years.” Subadhra Devi said at her Kamalnagar Colony residence in the district.

Jha’s younger son, Manoj (34), said he last spoke to his father on June 14 between 3.30pm and 4pm. “My father said they were ready to proceed to Kedarnath from Badrinath (220km),” he said Manoj.

Choubey’s younger son Arjit Saswat, however, refuted the allegation. Shaswat told over the phone from New Delhi: “Soon after my father recovered, he enquired about the priest.”