Beed police trace teen missing since 2017; reunited with family in Pune

Raju Mali went missing in 2017 as a teen and was found living with a teacher. Beed police reunited him with his family after a thorough investigation.

A man who went missing from school when he was a teenager in 2017 has been reunited with his family due to the efforts of Beed police in Maharashtra, an official said on Saturday. Raju Kakasaheb Mali had gone missing as a 16-year-old and remained untraceable since his parents, who were sugarcane labourers employed in Karnataka at the time, were illiterate and did not approach the police, the official said.

Raju Kakasaheb Mali had gone missing as a 16-year-old and remained untraceable since his parents. (beedpolice.gov.in)

"Raju was studying in Class X in Sangameshwar Vidyalaya in Nalwandi. He left school one day in December 2017 and did not return home. It was only in 2023 that his mother filed a missing person case at Pimpalner police station in Beed," the official said.

"Our probe, headed by sub inspector Pallavi Jadhav, found he was living in the house a teacher when he went missing. Jadhav met Raju's parents, friends and also this teacher," said the official.

She confided in Superintendent of Police Navneet Kavat, and the district police, with the help of technical intelligence, managed to trace Raju to Pune. He was reunited with his parents at the SP office, the official informed.