Nagpur engineer living on Kochi streets reunited with family after 4 years

For four years, Rashtrapal Manohar Chahandae lived on the streets with only fragmented memories of his earlier life. Around 1,600 km away from his home in Nagpur, Maharashtra, the 37-year-old engineer survived largely on charity while struggling with depression and a persistent sense of loneliness.

This week, however, Chahandae was reunited with his family through the efforts of the Kerala Police. On Monday, his sister Priyanka Sidharth Bhasharkar, brother-in-law Aman Sampatrao Ramteke and aunt Rekha Sidharth Bhasharkar met him at the Mulavukadu police station in Kochi, the Indian Express reported.

Police said Chahandae had been found wandering near the station last month. He frequently visited a nearby water kiosk to drink water, relied on charity for food and spent his nights in an abandoned building on the backwater island. His memories had reportedly been affected by depression.

Sub-inspector Thomas Pallan said Chahandae gradually became familiar with police personnel through his repeated visits to the water dispenser. Initially, he was unable to recall much about his past, but he slowly began sharing details about his life. The police also took him to a psychiatrist, who reportedly found no major psychiatric concerns but said he needed time and support to stabilise.

As Chahandae opened up, the police learned that he held a postgraduate degree in engineering and had previously worked for Mahindra and Mahindra in Mumbai, earning about Rs 1 lakh a month. After the deaths of his parents and the marriages of his three sisters, he was left living alone and eventually slipped into depression.

In 2022, he left home and travelled to South India. After spending the next four years wandering through different parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he reached Kochi in July this year.

Pallan said that people found living on the streets are usually produced before a magistrate, following which they may be sent to a shelter or mental health institution. He said the chances of reconnecting such individuals with their families often become remote, but the Mulavukadu police decided to investigate Chahandae’s background and attempt to trace his relatives.

Meanwhile, Chahandae’s family in Soanala, Nagpur, had filed a missing-person complaint in 2022, although they had not pursued the case further.