Mumbai: Autistic teenager missing for 3 days rescued from drain

MUMBAI: Three days after an autistic teenager went missing from Goregaon (east), his family and the police found him on Friday in a nullah less than 4 km from his home. Dhruv Mane, 19, was weak from not having food or water and suffered a few injuries from the fall into the nullah. It was not immediately clear to the family or the police as to when the teenager had fallen inside.
Mane lives with his parents and brother. On August 23, he left his mobile phone at home and stepped out. His family thought he would return home in a few hours. When he did not return by evening, they approached officials of Vanrai police station and lodged a missing person's complaint.
"We informed the control room and sent out teams to search in Malad (east), Dindoshi and Aarey Colony," said sub-inspector Sangram Gawde of Vanrai police station.
Surveillance cameras had captured Mane walking down the service road on Western Express Highway, up to an Indian Oil petrol pump. But there were no CCTV grabs of him thereafter. Meanwhile Mane's family too was looking for him and combed their locality as well as malls that he liked to frequent.
Gawde said there is a cemetery not far from the Indian Oil petrol pump and he checked their camera footage as well but drew a blank.
"For hours, I analysed the footage from different cameras and made a list of all events since the teen's departure from his home. There was a nullah which ran close to the cemetery and further into Aarey forest. It appeared as if he had vanished from that location," said the cop.
Gawde reached the nullah on Friday where a BMC team had already arrived for a search. It turned out that Mane's family had called the BMC for help as they had a strong feeling the teen was somewhere around the nullah.
Lowering themselves inside with ropes, two BMC personnel entered the nullah which has ankle-deep water and carried out a search. After they confirmed that Mane was inside, the police dialled the fire brigade and got two ambulances. "My son was dehydrated when he was brought out of the nullah. He was given rehydration salts and rushed to a private hospital in Andheri," said Mane's father, Sunil, who is with him at the hospital.