Missing 26/11 witness returns home

Anita Uddaiya, who witnessed the terrorists landing on Mumbai's shores and was missing since Sunday, returned to her home on Wednesday.

"She has come back to her house," Additional Commissioner of Police K Venkatesham said.

Uddaiya, a resident of Fishermen's Colony in Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai, returned home at around 1.30 am after she went missing on Sunday, said Cuffe Parade inspector Ganapati Kawde.

"She was brought to the police station and her statement was recorded as a missing complaint was registered earlier," Kawde said.

"Within half-an-hour after her return, the police van came and took her to police station," said a neighbour.

Though she came back, Uddaiya and her family members were not available at home.

"She learnt about what had happened in her absence. After we recorded her statement, she might have gone to her relative's place in Virar to avoid the media," said a police officer.

On Anita's disappearance, Kawde clarified that she had gone to Satara district in western Maharashtra to meet her relatives.

"She went to Satara to meet her brother. Because of some communication gap, the message was not conveyed to the family members," said Kawde.

"She went to St George hospital on Sunday to see her husband Rajendra who had undergone an operation. She told him that she was going out for four days. However, her husband who is not well did not hear properly what she was saying," Kawde said.

An officer, on the condition of anonymity, said that she travelled till Satara in a milk tanker. "She met her brother there and returned on a milk tanker," the officer said.

"She is also feeling uncomfortable after the media repeatedly started focusing on her after she became a witness in the terror attacks," an officer said.

The woman had seen the terrorists land in a rubber dinghy on the beach at the colony. But when she asked them where they had come from, she was told to mind her own business.

After the attacks, she had been taken to the state-run JJ Hospital to identify the bodies of the nine killed terrorists, police had said.

Uddaiya, who deals in scrap, had been living with her family in the colony.

The woman's absence was noticed by her niece, who could not locate her aunt despite all efforts. After that, she informed Uddaiya's daughter who stays in neighbouring Thane.

Later, a missing complaint was filed with the police.