The man recollected that he belonged to Sasvad and Navi Sangvi in Pune (File)
A 49-year-old man who went missing from a temple in Shegaon 15 years ago was reunited with his family in Pune due to the efforts of the Regional Mental Hospital in Nagpur.
Vitthal Jagtap was suffering from intellectual disability psychotic feature and was admitted in Government Medical College and Hospital here before being shifted recently to the Regional Mental Hospital, said the latter's social service superintendent Kewal Shende on Saturday.
Mr Shende, who counseled the patient, told PTI that the man only vaguely remembered the name of his mother and his surname, and that he called his father.
He later recollected that he belonged to Sasvad and Navi Sangvi in Pune.
"However, he could not remember when he came to Nagpur, expect that he made the journey on foot. He did not remember having a wife and son. He had lost orientation of day, date, time etc.
"However, we started searching the names of places that he was saying on the internet. We also contacted Pune police who then approached their counterparts in Sasvad,"
Mr Shende said.
The police first managed to trace a cousin of Jagtap in Sasvad and then the former's wife and 21-year-old son Indrajit in Navi Sangvi, the official said.
"After one of the relatives, who is an ex-serviceman, contacted me, we completed the identification procedures and reunited Vitthal with his wife and son on Friday. He was meeting his family after 15 years," Mr Shende said.
Jagtap's son Indrajit said he had taken lot of effort to trace his father all these years but in vain.
"We are so happy. Even my father had tears as he made the journey back home with us. He instantly recognised his father whom he calls nana and both hugged and wept in joy," he told PTI.