On spiritual quest: Tarak Mehta actor returns home

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, May 18

The mystery over the disappearance of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma actor Gurucharan Singh ended late on Friday when he showed up back home in the national Capital.

The 50-year-old actor had left his Delhi residence for Mumbai on April 22, but never landed there. The police here last traced his mobile phone to Palam airport in Delhi where he left the phone to perhaps escape being traced.

Singh, who played the role of Roshan Singh Sodhi in the popular TV show, was interrogated after he returned home. He told the police that he “had left worldly life” to begin a “religious journey”. While on this pilgrimage, he said, he travelled to several cities and lived at gurdwaras in Amritsar and Ludhiana.

He said he had embarked on a spiritual quest having been overwhelmed by the challenges of mundane life, the police said after recording his statement in a local court.

Singh’s father Harjit Singh had lodged a missing person’s complaint after his disappearance, which had caused a lot of anxiety among his family, friends and co-stars. While Gurucharan Singh wants to be left alone right now and is not meeting anyone, Harjit Singh told The Tribune that he came home last night around 10 pm.

He said he had gone to the Golden Temple in Amritsar and other gurudwars across Punjab as well. “I was so relieved to see him. The feeling is indescribable,” he said.

“Let bygones be bygones. We are happy that he is back with us. After leaving the show post Covid outbreak, he wanted to be with us and help us. He is a very kind and pious man,” Harjit Singh said. The family lives in the Palam airport neighbourhood. Gurucharan Singh had left the TV show in 2020 during Covid and was later replaced by actor Balwinder Singh Suri.