The Aarey police have traced the family of the elderly woman who was found abandoned near a garbage dump in Aarey Milk Colony on Saturday morning. According to police sources, the woman had been living with her grandson in the Poisar area of Kandivli East. On the day of the incident, the 70-year-old reportedly left home around 7 pm while her grandson and his wife were at work. The family claims they do not know when she left the house or how she ended up in Aarey Milk Colony.

Speaking with mid-day, the woman’s grandson, Sagar Shewale, expressed shock and confusion. “I was surprised to learn that my grandmother was found in Aarey and that she had told police I dropped her there. I have no idea how she got there,” he said.

Sagar works as an office boy with an Andheri-based company and lives with his wife — a housemaid — their 10-year-old son, and his grandmother, who moved in with the family about a year ago. She previously resided alone in a rented house in Poisar. “My grandfather passed away when I was a child. Since then, ‘nani’ had been living alone. She owned a small shop on the footpath outside Dena Bank on SV Road in Kandivli West, which she had rented out for R10,000 a month,” he said. Sagar brought her to his house after his mother, who used to care for the woman, passed away last year.