The journal kept the manuscript for more than 17 months and the handling editor did not respond to any of my mail regarding inquiries of the status. After getting tired of no responses, we decided to withdraw the manuscript and sent a mail to the journal's email account regarding withdrawal and explained the reason for being ghosted by the handling editor. The journal also did not respond for more than 10 days and then we contacted the chief editor who finally apologized for the situation and the manuscript was withdrawn finally. Note that I tried to contact the chief editor in between but he was too busy with lots of paper and could not check on my manuscript and asked me to contact the handling editor again. 17 months and no response from the handling editor are just too much. At least, we deserve a referee report at the end. But alas, we did not get any. Thankfully, we can submit the manuscript elsewhere.
