Dharmalingam Pillai, who has been suffering from memory loss and lives in South Africa, went missing on January 30
Mumbai: A 69-year-old Non-Resident Indian, missing since 12 days from Mumbai international airport, has been traced and reunited with his daughter after 12 days with the help of two alert citizens, police said on Monday, Feb 13, a PTI report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
Dharmalingam Pillai, who has been suffering from memory loss and lives in South Africa, went missing on January 30 hours before he and his daughter were scheduled to fly from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here to Durban.
Pillai, a retired clerk, and his daughter, working at a senior position in the field of logistics, had come to India to visit their roots on his birthday. His grandfather had migrated to South Africa and since then the family was settled in Durban, an official said.
A missing person’s report was registered at Sahar police station on January 31 following which around 7,000 handbills and posters with Pillai’s picture and other information were printed and circulated in the city with the help of his daughter and the office of the South African Consulate General in Mumbai, he said.
The information was also shared by the city police on other social media platforms. The CCTV footage at various locations was examined by a number of police teams.
Two citizens, who came to know about the missing NRI through social media and news articles, spotted Pillai wandering on 14th Road in suburban Khar on Sunday and immediately got in touch with police.
Pillai was then brought to the Sahar police station and reunited with his daughter on Sunday evening, the official said. “It was an emotional moment for everyone,” he added.
“The awareness among Mumbaikars helped in tracing Pillai and this is an example of police and citizens working together,” the official said, adding it was a challenging task to search for a person, who has memory loss issue, amid the huge city population.
Teams comprising senior police inspector Sanjay Gowilkar and sub-inspectors Sushant Bavachkar and Sunil Vagre were involved in tracing the NRI.
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