Missing Mulund youth contacts family from Dubai: ‘will return after earning some money’

“He told his family that he is in Dubai. He has also clicked some selfies with Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall in the background and sent them home. He, however, refused to tell them where exactly he is staying in Dubai,” said an officer linked to the case.

“He told his family that he has been hired by an optic store and will be start working there soon. He is on a three-month tourist visa. He has promised his family that he will return home after earning some money,” an officer said. The police find this version believable as his friends have said that in the past, he did talk about going abroad to earn some money.

An officer said that the youth also has a friend in Dubai, who a few months ago, had told him about “good work opportunities there”. “He has not been in touch with his Dubai-based friend as yet,” an officer said. The police have found that he applied for a passport six months ago — something his parents were aware of — and kept the other documents at a friend’s place, claiming to need them for the final-year college admissions.

The main reason for anxiety around his disappearance was that on the last call he made to his family from the flight before leaving the country, he had allegedly said that he was converting to Islam. This raised fears that like some youngsters from the country in the past, he may have gone to join some terror group. What further added to the fear was the fact that the 23-year-old would often be chatting to a girl online for hours. Several youngsters who left the country were radicalised online.

“Once when the family members had a fight with him over chatting for long periods, he told them that he was chatting with a Pakistani girl. However, it is possible that the two issues are not related. We have sent the hard disk from his computer to the Forensic Science Laboratory to find out about the contents,” the officer said.

“While prima facie it does not appear that there is any terror link to it, we will interrogate him once before coming to any conclusions,” the officer added. After the youth had called up his family members from the plane, they had approached the Mulund police, where a missing persons case was registered.