Bhubaneswar/Ganjam: For the last three days, a grieving father from Ganjam has been sitting silently on the divider of the busy national highway at Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar, his eyes fixed towards the east and his heart filled with hope that his missing son will somehow return.
The man has been identified as Sannyasi Sahu of Sadar village under Belaguntha police limits in Ganjam district. For the past seven years, he has been serving as a priest at the Gopinath temple in Dhodapalli village under Jagannath Prasad police station.
Sahu has been searching for his son, Ambika Prasad Sahu, who has been missing for the last seven months. Unable to bear the uncertainty and pain any longer, the helpless father turned to a baba for guidance after police efforts failed to trace his son.
Following the baba’s advice, Sannyasi came to Khandagiri and began waiting on the roadside, believing that if he sat there facing east for seven days, he would see his son passing by.
A daily wage labourer and temple priest, Sannyasi had once dreamed of giving his son a better future. After Ambika passed Plus II, he came to Bhubaneswar to pursue B.Tech studies. Despite financial hardships, Sannyasi borrowed money and gave his son Rs 1 lakh for his education.
But poverty soon forced Ambika to work as a delivery boy to support himself. Later, he left for Bengaluru with friends in search of better earnings.
On October 28, 2025, Ambika called home asking for Rs 50,000. The family somehow arranged the money and sent it to him. After receiving it, he informed his father that he had recovered his pledged mobile phone. That was the last conversation between father and son.
Since then, Ambika’s phone has remained switched off.
Sannyasi searched everywhere for his son before finally lodging a complaint at Jagannath Prasad police station. Police registered a case and collected Ambika’s photographs and Aadhaar details, but months passed without any clue.
Even after approaching the Ganjam SP, the father received no information about his missing son.
Now, with fading hope but an unbroken heart, Sannyasi continues to sit at Khandagiri, staring at the road for hours every day and praying that one day his son will return home.
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