Hardoi Instagram Missing Husband: 30-sec reel helps UP woman locate hubby who died 7 years back; living with second wife in Ludhiana | Lucknow News
LUCKNOW: Forget CID, forget private detectives. In Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, a wife solved a seven-year-old mystery with just a casual Instagram scroll.Back in April 2017, Sheelu of Murarnagar, Sandila, married Jitendra Kumar (32), better known in his village as Babloo. A few months later, the couple was expecting their first child. But instead of fatherhood, Babloo chose a disappearing act. In 2018, he suddenly vanished without a trace.His family, rather than helping Sheelu search, accused her of murdering him and hiding the body. A missing person’s report was lodged at Sandila police station, but the case soon went cold. For years, Sheelu carried the stigma of being suspected as a “husband killer,” while raising her son alone.Fast-forward to 2025. While scrolling Instagram reels, Sheelu spotted a man dancing happily in Ludhiana. The problem? It wasn’t just any man. It was Babloo — alive, grooving, and flaunting a new woman by his side, who police later confirmed was his second wife.“Sheelu waited seven years. Then one reel ended the suspense,” quipped a police officer involved in the investigation.Furious, Sheelu made the reel viral, then filed a formal complaint. Acting swiftly, Circle Officer Santosh Kumar Singh and his Sandila team — SI Ranjanikant Pandey, Head Constable Diwakar Mishra, and Constable Sunil Kumar — tracked Babloo down in Ludhiana, where he was working at a cloth factory and living a double life. He was arrested under Section 82(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (bigamy).The seven-year vanishing actPolice said Sheelu and Babloo married in 2017, and their son was born in 2018. Just weeks after the child’s birth, Babloo went missing. His family claimed ignorance but secretly filed a complaint suggesting foul play by Sheelu.“Time passed, but he never returned,” Sheelu told reporters, recalling how she was left abandoned and stigmatised during pregnancy. She also alleged that before disappearing, Babloo became abusive, forcing her to return to her parents’ house in late 2017. She only learned he “vanished” when she was four months pregnant.For years, the case remained a mystery. Then came the Instagram reel.The reel that became evidenceSheelu described her shock when she spotted her missing husband online. Determined, she confronted her in-laws, who admitted the man looked like Babloo but offered no explanation. Meanwhile, residents began sharing the reel widely, and soon the entire district knew the man “long gone” was alive and well.The police investigation confirmed the reel’s authenticity and Babloo’s new life in Punjab. “During the inquiry, it was found that Jitendra married another woman in Ludhiana. He has been taken into custody,” said CO Santosh Singh.For Sheelu, the discovery was bittersweet. “I don’t know why he left me during my pregnancy, when I needed him the most,” she said, adding that her years of waiting ended not with closure, but with betrayal gone viral.
