A 23-year-old man from southeast Delhi who had been missing for nearly two weeks was found dead in a canal in Haryana’s Palwal district, with key questions surrounding the circumstances of his disappearance and death yet to be answered.
Mohd Faiyz, a resident of Madanpur Khadar near Okhla and a student at Jamia Hamdard, left his home at around 11:30 pm on March 7 without informing his family.
According to relatives, it was Ramzan — a period when late-night outings are common, as people step out for prayers, including tarawih, or gather after breaking the fast. His absence did not initially concern them.
The family expected him to return by early morning, in keeping with the routine of the holy month. However, as the hours passed without any contact, concern began to grow.
After searching among relatives, friends and known contacts without any success, the family approached the police. A missing person complaint was registered at Kalindi Kunj police station on March 11.
Family members said they were able to briefly speak to Faiyz in the initial hours after he left home. In a call on March 8, he told his brother-in-law, Mohammed Aabid, that he was travelling and had come into contact with four unknown individuals.
In a subsequent account, Aabid said Faiyz had left home in search of work after being promised an opportunity in Vadodara by a man from Haridwar. According to him, Faiyz encountered the individual during his train journey. However, he grew suspicious of the situation and decided to get down at Mathura railway station.
During the call, he sounded distressed and said he felt “trapped” among the group. He expressed concern that the men could be fraudsters and told his family he would return to Delhi.This was the last confirmed contact.
According to Aabid, Faiyz’s phone was switched off shortly after the call and remained unreachable in the days that followed. “He said he was coming back. After that, the phone went off. We kept trying but could not reach him again,” he said.
The family alleged that there was little progress in the initial days of the investigation. They said they were informed that his phone number had been placed under surveillance, but no concrete updates were shared with them.
Nearly two weeks after he went missing, on March 21, the family received a call from police in Haryana’s Palwal informing them that an unidentified body recovered earlier had been linked to Faiyz.
Police said the body had been found on March 17 in a canal in the Palwal area and kept in a mortuary as unidentified. As no immediate identification could be made, it was being processed as an unclaimed body.
Officials said that during a subsequent examination of the body’s belongings, a mobile phone and identity documents were recovered, which helped establish his identity and led to the family being contacted.
Relatives reached Palwal later that night and identified him based on his belongings, as the body was in an advanced state of decomposition.
“We could not recognise him by face. The body was badly decomposed,” a family member said. “We identified him through his clothes, Aadhaar card and the phone.”
According to the family, the clothes matched what he had been wearing when he left home.A postmortem examination has been conducted, and the report is awaited. Police said the cause of death will be determined based on forensic findings.
It remains unclear whether the death was accidental, suicidal, or the result of foul play.The period between March 8, when Faiyz last spoke to his family, and March 17, when his body was recovered, remains unaccounted for. Investigators are yet to establish his movements during this time.
Family members have raised concerns about possible foul play, pointing to his last call in which he said he felt trapped among unknown individuals.
During the call, he sounded distressed and said he felt “trapped” among the group. He expressed concern that the men could be fraudsters and told his family he would return to Delhi.This was the last confirmed contact.
They also questioned the handling of the case in its early stages, alleging that more immediate action might have helped trace him sooner.
“It took the police multiple days to file an FIR. At first, calls were not answered, and then detailed documentation was sought. Even after an investigating officer was assigned, there were delays,” a relative said.
Police officials said the investigation will include an analysis of call detail records, phone location data and contacts made during the period he was missing. Efforts are underway to reconstruct his movements after he left Delhi.
Authorities in Palwal said the findings of their inquiry will be shared with Delhi Police, where the missing complaint was originally registered, for further investigation.
Some relatives and local residents also referred to other recent cases in which missing persons were later found dead in parts of Haryana, including Faridabad, raising larger concerns around suspicious killings of Muslim youths around Haryana region. For now, the circumstances leading to Faiyz’s death remain unclear.
As investigators work to piece together the missing days, the family says it is waiting for answers about what happened after he left home and whether his death could have been prevented.
