Police and an NGO have come to the rescue of a 70-year-old woman who was found loitering in the streets of Matunga in the last week of May. The woman who couldn't tell her name and her address could only tell that her son is an autorickshaw driver. With that tiny clue, the Matunga police and the NGO managed to trace her son six days later.
Around 2 am on May 29, the Matunga Police received a call that a woman from a middle class family loitering pointlessly near Vitthal Mandir in Matunga. The police brought her to Matunga police station, police Sub Inspector Sandip Ahirrao who was on night duty that day tried to ask her identity and where she stays, however she was unable to tell anything, after a lot of efforts she recollected that her son is a autorickshaw driver.
The police then handed over her to Avesta foundation which adopts deserted senior citizens and began their investigation. The police and Naaz Patel who runs the NGO then circulated her photographs among auto drivers and also contacted auto unions from Andheri and Santacruz.
Six days later the woman's son Ravindra contacted them and said that the woman is his mother Chandrabhaga who went missing on May 26. On Saturday, he took her home after he produced relevant documents. The woman's photographs which then circulated reached in the neighbourhood of Vile Parle where she stays and they alerted her family, said police.
"For seven days, I kept her at my home at Vira Desai Road in Andheri along with 14 other deserted senior citizens, not even once she complained of anything. As she is suffering from mental issues I have asked her son to take medical advice, hope she doesn't go missing again," said Patel. At least three times in the past she had gone missing, said police.
