MUMBAI: The special investigating team (SIT) formed on the directions of the Bombay high court to find a missing elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s have finally traced her and are going to submit their findings before the court on Monday.
The SIT, consisting of officers of crime branch unit 8 and 10, and led by deputy commissioner of police Sangramsingh Nishandar, has traced the elderly woman to Gujarat. Sources said that CCTV footage and eyewitnesses account confirmed that 71-year-old victim Uma Sarkar was in Kherwadi in Bandra until recently, but later moved to Gujarat. Later, the SIT visited Gujarat and traced her.
SIT officials refused to divulge any detail about how the woman reached Gujarat and said they will submit the report before the division bench of Justice S J Kathawala and Justice Milind Jadhav on Monday.
In the last hearing on February 17, the HC had given an ultimatum to the police after which the court was informed that an SIT was constituted on February 14 to trace the woman who was missing since February last year. Police had sought time to search for the woman in shelter homes and mental asylums.
During the hearing of a habeas corpus petition by brothers Bhaskar and Dipankar Sarkar through advocate Shehzad Naqvi, the petitioners informed the court that after their mother went missing, they had lodged a missing person complaint with the Kasarvadavli police station in Thane.
Later, they were told that their mother was spotted in Kherwadi police station. She was brought to the police station on February 16, and given food. She disclosed her name to police as Uma Sarkar.
Police told the court that while they were trying to find a shelter home to accommodate the septuagenarian, which was proving difficult due to the pandemic, the woman left the police station at around 8pm without informing anyone.
Earlier, the HC had also cracked the whip on senior police officials saying the force had failed in its duty. “Your DCP said he would move heaven and earth to find her... A woman suffering from dementia is missing from police station. The officer is just trying to shift the blame,” the bench had said, ordering the police to search for the elderly woman with urgency.
