NEW DELHI: A man who disappeared as a teenager in 2017 has been reunited with his family, an official said on Saturday. Raju Kakasaheb Mali, who was 16 at the time, went missing while studying in Class X at Sangameshwar Vidyalaya in Nalwandi. His parents, sugarcane labourers in Karnataka, were illiterate and did not approach police immediately, the official said. “He left school one day in December 2017 and never returned home. It was only in 2023 that his mother lodged a missing person’s complaint at Pimpalner police station in Beed,” the official added. The investigation, led by sub-inspector Pallavi Jadhav, revealed that Raju had been staying at a teacher’s house when he vanished. “Jadhav spoke to Raju’s parents, friends, and the teacher in question,” the official said. Jadhav later briefed Superintendent of Police Navneet Kavat, following which the district police used technical intelligence to track Raju to Pune. He was reunited with his parents at the SP’s office, the official said.
