Kolkata: UK backpacker, missing for five months, found in New Town – Times of India

Kolkata News
KOLKATA: A 30-year-old British backpacker out on a world tour, who had apparently gone untraced by her family in the UK for the last five months, turned up at the RWA office of a high-rise complex in New Town on Tuesday and pleaded with the residents and officials to send her home.
The RWA officials immediately contacted New Town police, who rescued her, reached out to the British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and put her up at a Park Street home for the time being.

A British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata spokesperson confirmed the developments and issued a statement saying, “We are aware of a British national in Kolkata and are providing consular assistance.”
Tanya Jeal, a resident of Bromley in England, had set off from her home in early November in 2019 with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. After trips to Italy, Egypt, Myanmar and Thailand, she reached India late in December 2019.
According to information uploaded on a popular English charitable organisation providing overseas crisis support for cases relating to missing persons, Jeal had stopped directly contacting her family in August 2020, when she was in Kolkata. The website says, “On 22nd February 2021, she was briefly in contact again from Delhi, India. However, there are concerns for her safety.”
Residents of Rail Vihar housing complex in New Town said the woman first approached the RWA office on Monday evening and came back on Tuesday asking for help.
“The woman said she had been staying here as a paying guest for the past year with her dog. She had planned to leave India, but was caught up in the travel restrictions and had run out of money. She said she was staying here with a young couple, also tenants, in a third-floor flat at Block K. Jeal claimed the couple mistreated her and her dog, and gave them very little food,” said Subrata Saha, the joint secretary of Rail Vihar RWA.
Saha said they spoke to the tenants who claimed they had given shelter to the woman considering her troubled situation, but denied having held her captive or snatching her belongings. “We have informed the matter to the flat owner and got in touch with cops and a local NGO,” said Saha.
Ankur Roy Chowdhury of NTFN NGO, which facilitated the rescue, said the woman seemed sick and was in need of medical attention.
Cops said the woman told them her Visa had expired last December, following which she moved in to the New Town flat by herself. “She said she doesn’t want to stay there any more and wants to head home. She sought assistance from us and we got her connected to the British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata. The commission officials said they need some time to verify her data and send her back. Hence, we arranged for a safe stay at a government home for the time being,” said an officer.
The officer said the woman didn’t speak about any mistreatment before them and didn’t lodge any official complaint against the persons with whom she was staying.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/uk-backpacker-missing-for-5-months-found-in-new-town/articleshow/84623475.cms