gaurav. sarkar@ mid- day. com SEARCH for missing autistic teenager Tarun Gupta has taken an optimistic turn over the past u0004 u0003 days. According to the u0004 u0081 - year- oldu2019s father, Vinod Kumar Gupta, nearly u00ad u0003 people have called him or his relatives over the past few days, to report sightings of his lost son.
All sightings have been from the . amnagar- Baroda- Ahmedabad region.
u201c We will find him any day now,u201d said a hopeful Gupta.
u201c About a month- and- a- half ago, Tarun was aboard the Devagiri Express, which runs between Mumbai and Secunderabad. He was in the AC compartment. I came to know this because the train ticket collector called me eight days ago. When the train neared Vasai, he saw posters and stickers announcing that Tarun was missing alongwith a number to call on in case he was sighted. He told me that Tarun was in the AC coach for two to three hours; passengers started complaining about him so he went and sat near the toilet... and that he had got off at . amnagar, which is where the train route ends.u201d Gupta and a few friends left for Baroda and have been there for the past five days, searching for Tarun. u201c The day we reached here was also the day Tarun was coincidentally spotted in Baroda,u201d he said. u201c A train commuter called me on Wednesday and told me that he had spotted Tarun at the bhajiya stall outside Baroda station. I have relatives in Baroda so I asked them to check... and they confirmed that people in the area had told them that Tarun was spotted there on February . . u201d On Friday night, Gupta and his friends left . amnagar and travelled by road to Dwarka, searching for Tarun along the way. u201c There are . u00ad stations between Virar and Ahmedabad... we are searching each and every one of them,u201d he said. u201c I believe we are very close to finding him.
There is a pattern. He is moving by train, and sleeping on platforms, then asking people for food, and then again boards a trainu2014 all of this between . amnagar, Baroda and Ahmedabad.
In the last u0004 u0003 days, at least u00ad u0003 people have told me that they had seen him in these places. We will find him at any moment.u201d It has been over u0004 u00ad u0003 days since the autistic teenager went missing from his house near Colaba.
Despite multiple u201c high priority alertsu201d issued by the RPF, as well as the deployment of a search team by Mumbai Police to search for him, Tarun is yet to be found and brought back home.
Over the past month, Gupta, along with a few friends and relatives, have been putting up posters and stickers on almost each and every train that comes in and out of Mumbai.
Mumbai Police have been unsuccessful in its search for Tarun; ( right) His parents Asha and Vinod. Over the past few months, Gupta and his friends have been putting up posters on trains coming in and out of Mumbai mid- day has been following the case for the last few months 120 No of days Tarun has been missing There is a pattern. He is moving by train, and sleeping on platforms, then asking people for food, and then again boards a trainu2014 all of this between Jamnagar, Baroda and Ahmedabad. In the last 10 days, at least 20 people have told me that they had seen hi Vinod Kumar Gupta
