Mumbai--A 22-year-old man was rescued by the Navi Mumbai police and social workers on Friday from the confines of his bedroom, where he was allegedly locked on the second floor of a duplex flat for the last 10 years.
Battling the sunlight, clutching two polythene bags tightly to his chest, Raj Patel took baby steps as he stepped outside the 100-sq-foot room that has been his home for a decade. “Dada food” is all that he kept repeating, even after the rescuers offered him vada pav.
The family of Raj, reportedly one among a businessman’s 10 children, lives in the lower floor of the duplex flat. According to Sharada Shah, president of local organisation Damini Sena which helped in the rescue, the family has been living in the deserted Sanjivini building in Belapur for the past 22 years. “There were some litigation issues with the building due to which other tenants moved out except this family. They continued to stay in the building without any water or electricity supply,” Shah told The Indian Express.
The Belapur police are investigating why Raj was kept in confinement while Shah claims that his step-mother and step-sisters wanted the boy to live separately.
Once out, rescuers had to lure Raj into the ambulance using vada pav. All through the journey to Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Hospital, Raj kept repeating: “Dada, food.” The family did not object to him being taken away.
Raj is currently at the DY Patil Hospital. The Navi Mumbai police has decided not to press any criminal charge against the family for now. “At this point we are concentrating on providing psychiatric assistance to the youth and his family members. We will soon decide what sort of action needs to be taken against the family,” said a police officer.
INDIAN EXPRESS
