After week-long search, missing ENT doctor from Sion found in Karjat

MUMBAI: ENT surgeon Dr Vikram Khanna (39) was traced at a political rally in Karjat on Thursday, a week after he went missing from his Sion residence. His family said he looked “disturbed”, but extremely happy to meet his 10-month-old daughter. Khanna was spotted by locals at a NCP meeting near the Shani temple in Karjat on Thursday evening. The police received a call informing them about an unknown person in the meeting.
The Sion police had distributed over 2,000 posters with his photograph across the city, Thane and Navi Mumbai.
“At 5.30pm, we received a call informing us about an unknown person in the meeting. I, along with a constable, went to the venue and brought him to the police station. A few people had recognized him from the posters,” said S A Dhavale, sub-inspector at Karjat police station. “He seemed frightened.”
The police said he was also carrying newspaper clippings of all the media reports on his disappearance.
Khanna divulged his name and other details after a lot of probing.
“He showed us an English newspaper report about his missing complaint, which had his details and a mobile number on it. We called on the number and also informed the Sion police,” Dhavale added.
The senior doctor had been missing since Friday morning after leaving behind a note, prompting a massive search operation in the city and beyond. The family had also been looking for him through the social media after he left a note saying he could not take the pressure anymore.
His sister Ritu said, “We are very happy and relieved that he is back. He is disturbed right now. We are bringing him back to Mumbai. We will take him home once the police formalities are over. He was very happy to meet his daughter.”
The police said he did not speak much. “He was staying in some temple at Kalyan is what we know so far,” said Ritu, who had been spearheading the search on social media.The family said Khanna was hurt about his one-page letter being referred to as a “suicide note”.
Inspector Parshu Kamble of the Sion police station said Khanna was found in untidy clothes. “When people tried to talk to him at the meeting, he did not respond,” said Kamble.
The police said that the doctor appeared depressed. “Despite his wife being next to him, he chose to keep mum,” Kamble said.
The police suspect that there could be two reasons for his depression, litigations filed by his society members and financial problems.
His mother Veena Khanna told TOI from Karjat police station, “While leaving home, he left behind a letter, which stated that he was depressed due to harassment by a few society members. They were harassing him over payment of dues and other issues. He was depressed due to ongoing court and police cases related to the society, besides professional reasons.”