For the four years that he roamed the streets of Kochi, Rashtrapal Manohar Chahandae lived his life in fragments. Some 1,600 km from his home in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and primarily relying on charity, Chahandae had only faint memories of his past life – his village, his college life in Ahilyanagar, and his work in Mumbai. But what he remembered most vividly was the gnawing feeling of loneliness.

This week, Chahandae, a 37-year-old engineer with a master’s degree, found his way back home – all thanks to the efforts of the Kerala Police. On Monday, Kochi’s Mulavukadu police station witnessed the reunion of Rashtrapal Manohar Chahandae with his sister Priyanka Sidharth Bhasharkar, brother-in-law Aman Sampatrao Ramteke and aunt Rekha Sidharth Bhasharkar.

Rashtrapal was unkempt and dishevelled, wandering near Mulavukadu police station, situated on an island in Kochi, last month. To quench his thirst, he frequently turned up at a water kiosk near the police station, police said.

He relied on charity for food and curled up in an abandoned building on the backwater island at night. According to the police, depression had affected his memories.

“He slowly got closer to us while coming here for drinking water from the dispenser. Initially, he could not recall anything, but slowly, he began talking. We took him to a psychiatrist, who reported that he has no major issues, but wanted to get stabilised,” says sub-inspector Thomas Pallan.

With the care and protection of the police, Chahandae began opening up. A postgraduate in engineering, he had worked at Mahindra and Mahindra in Mumbai and earned Rs 1 lakh a month. After his parents died and his three sisters married, he was left all alone, eventually slipping into depression.

In 2022, he left home and moved to South India. After wandering in many places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for the last four years, Chahandae reached Kochi in July this year.

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“He could speak English fluently. One of us at the station could find time to speak to him every day. He calmed down and began talking about the past. He provided the name of the college V K Patil College of Engineering, Ahilyanagar, and his local village near Nagpur. When we contacted the college and shared his photos, they found the contact number of a relative, which helped us reach his family,” said the inspector.

Sub-inspector Thomas Pallan said that typically, people found on the street are produced before a magistrate’s court, which will order lodging in a shelter or a mental hospital. Reunion of such persons with families becomes very remote in such situations. But in this case, we had decided to collect his background details and see whether reunion was possible,” he said.

In Nagpur, the family at Soanala had filed a missing complaint with local police in 2022 but did not pursue it.

“He had worked with Mahindra and Mahindra for two years before leaving us. He had got the job through campus placement. We were clueless about his whereabouts. But for the Kerala Police intervention, he would have remained beyond our reach,” said brother-in-law Aman Sampatrao.