Rag-picker who went missing at Deonar landfill yet to be traced

“He (Safirullah) left home at 8 am on that day. He usually would come home by 3 in the afternoon. When he did not return till 7 in the evening, we got worried and visited the landfill looking for him,” Safirullah’s sister Shabnam told The Indian Express.

“He would leave his slippers outside the landfill and enter its premises by wearing boots. We found his slippers lying outside the ground, but he couldn’t be traced,” Shabnam said.

The family filed a missing person complaint with local police who accessed CCTV footage from the service road leading to the landfill. Security personnel deployed at the landfill told The Indian Express that no entry of Safirullah was recorded in the logbooks for that day.

“Between October 9 and 11, we carried out search operations extensively inside the dumping ground, however we couldn’t find any clue,” said a police official.

“Family members claimed that they have seen CCTV recordings of him entering the landfill… we are examining the footage. Based on their demands, we carried out search operations at the places pointed out by them,” the official added.

Meanwhile, a civic official told The Indian Express, “The landfill is spread across 300 acres, the victim was seen in a footage outside the landfill. Police carried out search operations for two days but couldn’t find him. The family members are also visiting us on a regular basis and we are allowing them assistance in whichever way possible.”