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Posted: 2018-04-20 00:28:30

Posted April 20, 2018 10:28:30

An Indian man who vanished 40 years ago has been reunited with his family after his brother recognised him in a viral YouTube video.

In 1978, Khomdram Gambhir Singh went missing from Manipur state, the BBC reported.

The 66-year-old said he left home months after he got married because he was unhappy.

The former soldier in the Indian Army said he moved to Mumbai where he earned money begging and working as a labourer.

Street photographer Firoze Shakri shot and edited a video of Mr Singh singing for money and shared the video last October.

"He was making money as a beggar singing old Hindi songs," Mr Shakir told the AFP news agency.

His family, who had not heard from Mr Singh for decades, saw the video of him singing.

Because Mr Shakri, who shot and edited the video, was based 3,300 kilometres away in Mumbai, the family assumed Mr Singh's whereabouts, and had the Manipuri police contact Mumbai police.

Eventually, Mr Singh was found in the suburb of Bandra.

"We found him outside a railway station. He was in a bad state, he was not well," inspector Pandit Thakaray told the BBC.

Mr Singh was flown back to Manipur on Thursday.

"I could not believe my eyes when one of my nephews showed me the video footage. We had lost all hope of seeing him alive again," Mr Singh's brother, Khomdram Kulachandra, told The Hindu newspaper.

A refurbished house has been prepared for him to live in by family and neighbours in Manipur capital, Imphal, the Times of India reported.

Topics: human-interest, missing-person, india

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