Missing NEET aspirant traced, had travelled across India in 23 days

Kota, May 31 

A NEET aspirant, who went missing from Kota on May 6, was traced by his father at a railway station in Goa. With just Rs 11,000 in his pocket, the 19-year-old spent the days travelling on trains, often ticketless. 

Rajendra Prasad Meena had raised the money by selling his books, mobile phone and two bicycles, his uncle said.

A day after taking the competitive medical exam, Meena on May 6 sent a text message to his parents saying that he did not want to study any further and was leaving home for five years, police had said.

Meena said that he had Rs 8,000 with him and if need be, he would contact his family. 

The NEET aspirant’s family has alleged that the Kota police did not take any efforts into tracing the youth.

Kota police did not even step out of the city to look for the boy and showed negligence in technically tracking him, Meena’s uncle Mathura Lal said on Friday.

He said that the family formed four teams, each comprising three family members, in search of the youth since the day he had gone missing, he said.

According to his family, after performing badly in his NEET exam, Meena sold his phone and left Kota on May 6. He boarded a train to Pune, where he stayed for two days. 

In Pune, he purchased a second-hand mobile phone for Rs 1,500, got a sim using his Aadhaar Card and then went to Amritsar where he visited Golden Temple. Thereafter he headed to Vaishno Devi in Jammu, Lal said.

The uncle alleged that if Kota police made efforts, then they would have traced him in Pune when the boy got a sim, which was linked to his Aadhaar Card.

From Jammu, Meena went to Agra and saw Taj Mahal, then boarded a train to Jagannath Puri Dham in Odisha. He then headed to Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu and then moved to Kerala where he visited Kanniyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram, Meena’s family said.

He then went to Goa where he was traced by his father Jagdish Prasad at Madgaon railway station on Wednesday morning while he was about to board a train, the uncle said.

All this while, the medical aspirant was travelling in the general coaches of the trains without buying tickets. He also managed to save Rs 6,000. 

Meena’s family had filed a missing person’s report at the Vigyan Nagar police station in Kota.

Meanwhile, Vigyan Nagar circle inspector Satish Choudhary on Friday said police teams were dispatched with family members at various suspected locations.

A police team with the boy’s father had stayed in Mumbai while the father and two cousin’s headed to Goa to look for Meena and found him at the Madgaon railway station, he said, adding that the youth was handed over to the family.

“Meena appeared unrecognisable but when his father called him, he naturally responded at instant,” the uncle said.

The family examined CCTV footage at public places and railway stations in their respective directions and verified Meena’s movement, he said.

Now, they have asked the boy to do what he wishes and to stay at home, he added.