A happy reunion: Missing Bangladeshi schizophrenic patient reunites with family after 21 years

Mumbai: It was a happy reunion after 21 years. A mentally ill person who went missing from his home in Bangladesh in 2002 and was found wandering in India 21 years later has finally reunited with his family.

Md Rahman alias Moti from Thakurgaon district of Bangladesh was reunited with his family on Friday. An emotional video of Moti hugging his parents brings tears to everyone who watched.

Moti is suffering from chronic schizophrenia. He was found by the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation (SRF), the only registered NGO in India, run by professional psychiatrists, dealing with the cause of the wandering mentally ill destitute since 1988.

In 2019, Moti was found wandering in Karjat City, Maharashtra. He was unable to speak coherently and was not very friendly. Speaking in Bengali, Moti sometimes would lapse into a different dialect of Bengali which is spoken in the regions on the border of West Bengal.

Sheltered at the foundation home for years, the Shraddha team could manage to get in touch with his family members in 2022.

When the team spoke to his father through, they found he had lodged a missing complaint in 2002. Moti's father disclosed that his son has a history of mental illness and unfortunately, he did not receive treatment for his illness back home.

On Friday, Shraddha Associate Psychiatrist Dr. Swarali Kondwilkar, Indian Embassy Officials, and NGO's Bengali social worker Nitish Sharma crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border.

As Moti walked up to his family, his mother, and father could not hold back their tears seeing their son after 21 years. All they did was hug him and cry out loud.

Not an easy journey

While his father was waiting for his son's arrival and to celebrate Eid with him, the officials at Phulbari Indo-Bangladesh Border raised the technical issue of the Exit Permit, stating that it was a mandatory requirement, given that Md Rahman did not have a valid passport. He has to obtain it from the FRRO Office in Mumbai.

Thanks to Bawankar, the Assistant Foreigners Regional Registration Officer in the FRRO Office who got moved with his story and immediately issued the approval.