Missing Kuwaiti woman found in Bangladesh after vanishing from Kolkata zoo

A Kuwaiti woman who had come to Kolkata for medical care vanished from a zoo in late January, setting off a cross-border search that would eventually involve two countries' police forces and diplomatic channels. The 31-year-old had arrived in India on January 20 with her younger brother, staying at a five-star hotel in East Kolkata while undergoing treatment for a skin condition at a private hospital. On January 27, the two of them visited Alipore Zoo. It was there, among the crowds and pathways, that she disappeared.

Her brother reported her missing to the local police station, communicating as best he could in halting English about what had happened. The initial lead—her Kuwaiti mobile phone—proved useless; the signal could not be traced. So Kolkata Police turned to the city's network of security cameras, beginning the painstaking work of scanning footage from across the zoo and surrounding areas.

What emerged from hours of video review was a clear sequence of events. The woman had gotten into a yellow taxi with a man dressed in a suit, cap, and mask—a combination of clothing that made identification nearly impossible. Police tracked down the taxi driver, who told them the pair had gotten out near Marquis Street in central Kolkata. From there, they had taken another vehicle, this one heading toward the border. The trail led to Bangaon, in North 24 Parganas district, where the international boundary between India and Bangladesh runs. After that point, there was nothing—no further sightings within Indian territory.

The man remained a shadow. Investigators, working from the taxi footage and examining hundreds of additional camera recordings, eventually produced a photograph of him. They believed he was a Bangladeshi national, though confirmation remained uncertain. A red alert was issued. Officers from Alipore Police Station and the Anti-Rowdy Section of Kolkata Police worked their sources, speaking to informants and contacts who might know what had happened. The consensus became clear: the pair had crossed the border.

With that realization, the case shifted from a local missing persons investigation to a diplomatic matter. Kolkata Police informed the Kuwaiti Embassy in New Delhi of their findings. The embassy, in turn, reached out to Bangladeshi authorities, requesting their assistance in locating the woman. On Monday—roughly a week after she disappeared from the zoo—she was found in a house in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi police took her into custody and handed her over to Kuwaiti officials.

The Kuwaiti Embassy later sent a letter of appreciation to Kolkata Police, acknowledging the work of the officers who had pursued the investigation across jurisdictional and national lines. But significant questions remained unanswered. The identity and whereabouts of the man who had taken her from the zoo were never disclosed to the media. The specific location in Bangladesh where she was found, the circumstances of her time there, and her current condition were all kept from public view. The case, from the perspective of those following it in the press, simply ended—the woman recovered, the man unaccounted for, and the full story locked away in official channels.