20-year-old reunites with family in Thane after finding kin on music app

A popular music app helped a 20-year-old woman reunite with her family on Sunday. The woman had run away from her sister’s home in Diva, Thane, in 2016. Last week, she saw her sister and brother-in-law on a music app, through which, she got their contact details.

The woman, whose name the police have withheld, then made a fake profile on social media and would chat with her brother-in-law. During their chat, she would often enquire about her sister and parents, owing to which, her brother-in-law suspected her to be his wife’s sister. He then approached the police, who reunited the woman with her sister and mother.

In November 2016, the woman, who was then 17 years old, had come from her home in Yavatmal to stay with her sister in Diva. A few days later, the woman’s mother asked her to come back to Yavatmal. She told her sister she was going back to Yavatmal, but came to Mumbai instead. When she did not reach Yavatmal, her sister and brother-in-law approached police. As the woman was a minor at the time, police filed a case of kidnapping against an unknown person.

R Daundkar, senior police inspector, Thane anti-human trafficking cell, said, “The 17-year-old came across a woman in Mumbai, who helped her get a catering job in Surat, Gujarat. Two years later, she married a man in Surat.” The couple then came to Mumbai.

Daundkar added, “The woman was going through a music app, when saw her brother-in-law and sister on it. She received their contact details on the music app, following which she made a fake profile on social media and contacted her brother-in-law. During their conversation, she would often ask her brother-in-law about his wife and her family. This made her brother-in-law suspicious of her identity.”

The woman’s sister and brother-in-law then approached the police. “We asked her brother-in-law to continue chatting with her and then traced her location through the IP address and reunited her with her family,” said Daundkar.