‘Waiting for you, mom’: 70-year-old Thane woman missing for 2 months

April 13 marks two months since senior citizen Uma Sarkar 70 last walked out of her Thane home she has been missing ever since Sarkar who is suffering from dementia and schizophrenia never as a rule left her home alone at Sainath CoOperative Housing Society on Godhbunder RoadBhaskar with his motherThe backgroundHer son Dipankar 38 said ldquoMy brother Bhaskar 40 and I never let our mother move out of our home unaccompanied as she is mentally ill I used to lock our home from the inside It has a safety catch and makes a loud sound when somebody opens it so we were alert if my mother ever tried to go out I also have three dogs at home who would bark if somebody entered or went outrdquo That evening Dipankar was inside the bedroom taking an online class and he had earphones on that drowned out any soundDipankar is looking for employment having lost his job in the pandemic while his brother works as a cashier and was away Both men live with their mother at home Dipankar said ldquoMy mother unlocked the bolt and the dogs followed her outside but a neighbour told me that she shooed the dogs back in the house She left home after bolting the door from the outsiderdquoSlipped outIt took Dipankar a while to emerge from the bedroom ldquothe dogs were sitting in the room by thenrdquo and realised that his mother was gone He called for a neighbour to unlock the door and realised that his mother was nowhere to be seenldquoThrough rising panic we thought she may have gone to the paanwallah close by as she was fond of eating paan Yet he too had not seen herrdquo They did check surveillance of a nearby building which show her standing near it but after that there has been no sign of herrdquoPolice complaintThe Sarkar brothers have filed a police complaint at Kasarvadavli police station They have also put up missing posters at Thane and Mulund stations ldquoWe have scoured for any sign of her at hospitals outside jumbo COVID centres but in vainrdquo they said in despairIn the third week of February the brothers who have posted details about their missing mother on social media and WhatsApp groups got a call from a friend saying he got a message from somebody saying their mother was seen at Kherwadi police station in Kalanagar Bandra East rdquo Dipankar added ldquoI rushed to the police station but the officers told us that she was here a couple of days ago but had slipped out and disappeared They claimed there was no CCTV footage but did tell me that she said my late fatherrsquos name was so and so which was correct and talked about our childhood home These details my mum would repeatedly talk about and only she knew I asked them how they could let her go from the police station as they must have known she is a missing person or unwell I do not understand how she can simply walk out of a police station after being lsquofoundrsquordquo A flustered Dipankar added that the Mumbai police are one of the best in the world but this has simply shocked and baffled himCop speakAn officer at the police station did not answer questions related to whether she was found He said ldquoI will revert in some timerdquo Another officer claimed ldquoThe investigation is on we are looking and all are efforts are focused on finding Uma Sarkar we will not let uprdquoThe brothers meanwhile are clinging on to hope that their mother will be spotted by someone somewhere ldquoWe are weary but we have not given up The search has been challenging and COVID restrictions are also affecting our mobility We are living on hope and a prayer that our family becomes a unit of three againrdquo they finished emotionally