Vipin Gupta Found After Days Missing: Bengaluru Techie Claims 'I’d Live In Jail Rather Than Returning Home'

A 37-year-old tech professional from Lucknow, Vipin Gupta, who went missing from Bengaluru on August 4, was found near a mall in Noida on Thursday evening, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North East Division, Bengaluru, Sajeeth VJ. Gupta, a resident of North Bengaluru, was spotted exiting the mall after watching a movie. He was brought back to Bengaluru city by the police on Friday morning, but not before making some shocking claims about his personal life.

Gupta's disappearance had prompted his wife Sreeparna Dutta to take to social media, for help and locate him. She stated that her husband went missing after stepping out to visit an ATM and feared he might have been kidnapped.

During the initial stages of the investigation, the Bengaluru police had little information to go on. Gupta's mobile phone had been switched off, and despite checking CCTV footage at bus stands, railway stations, and the airport, the authorities found no trace of him. The breakthrough came when Gupta bought a new SIM card in Noida and inserted it into his old phone, which allowed the police to track his location.

When officers approached Gupta as he emerged from the mall, he immediately recognised them as plainclothes police officers. "When three of us surrounded him, he realized we were cops in civil clothes. He smiled and asked what next? We told him we should fly back to the city, and he strongly objected," one of the officers told The Times of India.

After hours of persuasion, Gupta finally agreed to return to Bengaluru. However, he made it clear that he was reluctant to go back. "You put me in prison, I will live there...but I won't return," Gupta reportedly told the officers. He eventually agreed to return after the police explained that the missing person complaint filed by his wife Sreeparna Dutta could only be closed in his presence.

Upon arriving at Kempegowda International Airport on Friday morning, the police took a statement from Vipin Gupta and sent him home. In his statement, Gupta alleged that his wife harasses and tortures him. "I'm her second husband. When I met her around three years ago, she was a divorcee with a 12-year-old daughter. I was a bachelor and agreed to marry her. We have an eight-month-old daughter together," he told the police.

Earlier, Sreeparna Dutta took to X (Formely Twitter) to thank the Law and order, CM office, media, friends, colleagues and people from all walks of life to support and help with the tracing of Vipin.

Her tweet went viral and a user wrote,''The way she was jittery, one could sense, she is hiding something. Hope he gets some liberty to live his life.''

To which Sreeparna Dutta herself replied,''Thank you for your sensing power. Now please sense all the other issues and provide solutions for the rest of the world.''

Saikat M another user wrote,''As per your husband's comment to police, your husband was traumatized by you. Itis a case of domestic violence. You should be arrested.''

Sreeparna Dutta said,''Has the statement been issued by police that you are so sure just based on some media report''