Jamshedpur, Jan. 18: The high drama over the mysterious disappearance of a tourist from Ghatshila reached an anti-climax at around 5 pm, after a 14-hour search operation.

The “abducted” man walked in to the Ghatshila police station with sheepish smile on his face. The police not only heaved a sigh of relief after seeing him, but also had a good laugh after the victim narrated his story.

Chandan Singha Ray (26), a youth from Uluberia in West Bengal, was a part of a picnic party comprising 50 members. They reached Burudih dam on the outskirts of Ghatshila on Saturday morning in a bus that they had hired for the trip. Last evening, when the group was about to leave at around 4 pm, Ray could not be found. A search by his friends near the dam site proved futile.

Members of the group reached Ghatshila police station and sought the help of the policemen to trace Ray. Barring two of the victim’s friends, the rest of the group went back to Uluberia. The police and CRPF jawans, led by the deputy superintendent of police, Shailendra Kumar Sinha, launched a search operation to trace Ray.

The news spread like wildlife in the small subdivisional town that a tourist from West Bengal was missing from Burudih dam. Speculation was rife that the youth was “abducted' by the People’s War (PW), active in the area. Panic gripped the tourists, who had come to the dam for picnics.

“We stopped our search operation a little after midnight and resumed early this morning. But there were no trace of Ray,” Sinha admitted. The police were at their wit’s end on how to recover the 'missing” tourist from West Bengal.

This evening, when the policemen were racking their brains over the next plan of action to trace Ray, the victim himself walked into the police station, much to the astonishment and relief of the police. “Ray said he had fallen asleep in a remote part of the forest, away from the dam. When he woke up, it was pitch dark. He didn’t know the time, but he quietly walked from the dam to Moubhandar —nearly 10 km from the site and reached his relative’s place at around midnight,” Sinha said.

Ray told the police that he had liquor and the soothing breeze from the river lulled him to sleep. But little did he realise that his nap would turn into a nightmare and put the local police on their toes.

“We have kept him at Ghatshila police station and his brother is reaching Ghatshila to take him back,” superintendent of police Arun Oraon Sid.

A couple of months ago, five youths from West Bengal were picked up by the Ghatshila police on suspicion that they were rebels. These youths, members of a Calcutta-based adventure club, had gone for a trek to the forest of Ghatshila, frequented by the rebels.