The world's foremost virus origins hunter

@TheSeeker268/Pivotal member of DRASTIC group

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

A mysterious Indian, known by his Twitter handle @TheSeeker268, deep dived into the internet to unearth troubling evidence that re-ignited the debate on the origins of the Covid-19 virus. He found himself lauded in international scientific papers and in the American news magazine Newsweek. Since then, he says, “I have been swarmed by journalists, as many as 20 of them at a time.” Yet, The Seeker has been steadfast in maintaining his privacy and anonymity. Only his parents and sisters know his identity. They call him Jeet.

Jeet, 30, lives in Bhubaneswar and describes himself as a “self-educated, motivated, curious soul,” who is nocturnal by nature and chatty by disposition. He fits in as the “eternal seeker” in DRASTIC, a group of internet sleuths who made the world re-look at the lab leak theory. He knows exactly where to look for information and how to scoop it out. He has a “photographic memory” and “an aptitude for quick-learning”.

The Seeker says he was just about to start an audiobook company in Delhi when Covid-19 erupted. He had selected five books and started recording two of them, with a friend. They had all the infrastructure in place. As Covid struck, he shelved the project and moved to Bhubaneswar, which happens to be his father's eighth posting in the government's civil aviation sector.

Hailing from a Bengali household, he had spent years in Pune, taking a degree in architecture from Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering in 2015. Later he went to Mumbai for a certificate course in cinematography and shot a few short films, one of them in Varanasi. With his friends, he planned a business in essential oils, planted lemongrass on a dozen hectares in Chhattisgarh, but profits were tough to come by.