Maha: Man reunited with family 20 years after fleeing home

The Thane police have reunited a man with his family 20 years after he fled his home in Uttar Pradesh as a 13-year-old, an official said on Tuesday.

The matter came to light during the investigation into the robbery and killing of mobile store owner Jitendra Singh Rajpurohit who was gunned down inside his store at Kalwa town on December 28, senior inspector of the Crime UnitI Niteen Thackre said.

On examining the CCTV footage from the area, the police found that the suspect was moving towards Mahim Dargah, he said, adding that locals also alleged that the person spotted in the footage was one Dilli, who was residing in the locality for the last two years.

The police subsequently tracked down the suspect, who was fund sleeping under a bridge at Vakola in the western suburb of Santacruz, he said.

On interrogation, the suspect revealed his name as Mohammad Ahmad @ Dilli Bashir Shaikh (33) and that he was involved in collecting scrap, Thackre said.

The police subsequently realised that it was a case of mistaken identity and the man was in fact a runaway, who had left his home at Benki in Uttar Pradesh 20 years ago, the official said.

Further probe revealed that the man's elder brother Safique Bashir Shaikh was living in Govandi and after confirmation from the Uttar Pradesh police's task force, the brothers were reunited.