Mumbai: Cops reunite post-graduate beggar with family in Kerala

Anup Rajshekharan (in red and yellow T-shirt) with his father Rajshekharan Kutapan and officers of the Juhu police station

The Juhu police have reunited a 37-year-old man - who had taken to begging in Mumbai following a heartbreak - with his family. The man had left his hometown in Kerala a year ago to come to the city in search of a woman he had met online. The police said the woman had rejected him after meeting him for the first time, following which the man went into depression and never returned home. He took to begging until the police rounded him up during an anti-begging drive recently and found his Aadhaar card.

The man has been identified as Anup Rajshekharan, 37, a resident of Kollam Karunagappalli in Kerala. Anup has completed his masters in Aqua Culture and Fisheries Science. He went missing in January 2022 after he came to Mumbai telling his parents that he was going to look for a job but never returned. On March 18, Juhu police PSI Umakant Kunjir found a beggar in Juhu and took him to the police station. There, the cops asked him for his details and he told them he had no family. While going through his belongings, the cops found his Aadhaar card from his bag and a letter in Malayalam.

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With the address on the letter, the police contacted the Karunagappalli police station in Kerala, who checked the missing person records. The Juhu police also sent a photo of Anup to the Kerala police. Police Sub-Inspector Prashant Arangale of Juhu police station found Anup's family contacts and shared his details with his father Rajshekharan Kutapan, 70. Speaking to mid-day, PSI Prashant Arangale said, "We formed a team of constables under the guidance of Senior Inspector Ajit Kumar Vartak to take action against beggars. We found Anup among them.

During interrogation, he told us that he had come to Mumbai in 2022 after he met a woman on Facebook. They had been chatting and he fell in love with her. The woman told him that she lived in Juhu so he came to meet her. When she rejected him, Anup didn't return home. He eventually started begging." PSI Arangale added, "We traced his family to Kerala and reunited him with his father on Tuesday."