HYDERABAD: Myadam Prashanth, a Telugu software engineer from Vishakhapatnam, who went missing in 2017 and traced to Pakistan in 2019 was finally released after being imprisoned for illegally crossing over to Pakistan today. He was handed over to the BSF by the Pakistan Rangers at Attari-Wagah joint check post on Monday.

In a huge relief for the family, the man would be reaching Hyderabad on Tuesday. His brother is expected to pick him up from the Shamshabad Airport and will be taken to Visakhapatnam where his family now resides.

It may be recollected in 2019, the news of a 30-year-old software engineer Myadam Prashanth from Hyderabad, along with another youth Darilal from Madhya Pradesh, were arrested by the Pakistan police for trespassing into their country without proper documentation at Cholistan in Bahawalpur state. A case was subsequently registered against them and they had to serve sentence for illegal trespass.

But while he was in Pakistan custody a video from him saying that he was safe but in Pakistan was released and went viral and hogged the media limelight. In the video which was apparently shot from a mobile phone camera, Prashanth who was smiling told his parents in his mother tongue Telugu that he was detained and brought to court from where he would be sent to jail for a month before being released and that he was fine.

After verification, it was discovered that Prashanth had been missing since April 2017. Prashanth’s father M Babu Rao, a private employee from Visakhapatnam who was living in Kukatpally in Hyderabad at that time, told reporters that his son left home in April 2017. Soon after, he got a job in Bengaluru after completing his engineering, Prashanth fell in love with a woman colleague from Rajasthan, while working in Bangalore between 2010 and 2013. Later, they had apparently broken up and she moved to Switzerland and he had moved to Hyderabad and joined a company at Madhapur. On April 29, 2017, he went to his office as usual but never returned. The very same day, Babu Rao lodged a complaint with the Madhapur police.

The lovelorn young man is said to have followed her to her place in Rajasthan, but no one knew how he ended up at the Pakistan borders.It was understood that he was in Pakistani police custody since 2017 and would have served a sentence for fours years before being released.