Vattippally villagers turn saviour to missing US citizen

Hyderabad: Salomie Rani has finally returned to her relatives, safe and sound. This is all thanks to the kind hearts of Vattippally village. She had gone missing from Ameerpet on October 1 at around 7 pm. After 72 hours of relentless searching, she was found from Vattippally Village.

58-year-old Salomie Rani CH, who has been living in New York for the past few years, had come to Hyderabad along with her husband around three weeks back. She had been staying with her relatives since then. On October 1, she, along with her relatives, had gone to visit her sister in Ameerpet. She was supposed to fly back to New York the very next day if it were not for the unfortunate turn of events.

“We were standing just beside a bus stop in Ameerpet while waiting for our car. All of a sudden, my aunt (Salomie) pushed away my mother and climbed aboard the 113 Bus from Uppal to Lingampally. We tried to follow her, but she had gotten down at Mythrivanam, and got lost from there,” said her niece, Shalini, who lives in Secunderabad.

Her niece’s accounts tell that Salomie is “mentally disabled” and that she had taken the wrong bus in the hope of reaching Karimnagar, where her in-laws stay. However, with four dollars and forty rupees in her hand, she couldn’t have gone far, thought the relatives. After filing an FIR at the SR Nagar Police Station, they informed other relatives and updated the news on social media. They prayed to get Salomie back safe.

Good news came today morning when they got a call from Vattippally police station, Sangareddy district, saying that they found her. “She was walking around in Vattippally when a few boys noticed her and took her to the village’s female sarpanch. They got her details from an Andhra Bank passbook in her possession. That was how we came to know,” says a relieved Shalini.

Vattippally villagers had taken care of Salomie overnight and let her stay with them until her relatives came to take her back. Their timely intervention, along with the help of the police, ensured Salomie’s safe return. “We thank the villagers of Vattippally profusely for taking such good care of her. Even the police have done such a good job. She seems a bit dull now, but otherwise, she is coping well,” added Shalini.