Kidnapped As A 7-Year-Old, UP Man Returns Home After 30 Years

A seven -year-old kidnapped from Ghaziabad, near Delhi, has finally returned home after over 30 years. Raju, now 37 years old, said he was kidnapped while he and his sister were on way home from school. 

The man, whose family live in Sahibabad, had gone missing on 8 September 1993. A report had been filed with the police, but the boy could not be traced and the case remained unsolved.

Raju said his kidnappers had sent him off to Rajasthan, where he had been living all these years. 

After he reached Rajasthan, he was beaten up regularly and made to work. All he received in return was just one roti in the evening. At night, he was tied up so he could not escape. 

But he finally managed to give his captors the slip and boarded a truck for Delhi. He remembered the city, though he had forgotten in which area he lived and the name of his parents. 

Once he reached the capital, he made the rounds of many police stations, but received no help. 

Five days ago, he reached the Khoda police station in Ghaziabad. The police here, he said, took care of him. They gave him shoes, arranged for food and water and also published information about him in the media and social media. 

Soon after, Raju's uncle contacted the police and his family came to receive him. The matter is being investigated, said senior police officer Rajnish Upadhyay, confirming the man's account of his coming to the police station.. 

"I am feeling so good now," Raju told reporters, sitting at a Hanuman temple near the police station. "I thank the Lord Hanuman. For days I have prayed that he reunite me with my family". 

The 37-year-old said the younger daughter of the person at whose house he was held captive, had asked him to worship Lord Hanuman and encouraged him to escape and find his family.