A 36-year-woman from Nepal, the daughter of a mayor who had gone missing on March 25, was found two days later in Goa, the police said.
Ms Aarti Hamal was found at a hotel in North Goa’s Mandrem, around 20km from where she went missing, reported NDTV.
Her father Gopal Hamal, the mayor of Dhangadhi, a sub-metropolitan city in Nepal, said in a post on X that his elder daughter had been missing since Monday, following which Goa police registered a case and launched a massive search operation.
Ms Aarti had been staying at an Osho meditation centre in Goa for the past few months. She was last seen near Ashwem Beach in North Goa, about 30km away from the capital city of Panaji.
The Osho centre is run by followers of the late Acharya Rajneesh or Osho, who was an Indian philosopher and mystic.
“A massive search operation was launched across the state to trace her,” a police officer said. “She had left her phone back at the Osho centre (and so) she could not be traced with the help of technical surveillance.”
The police started searching different places in and around Pernem and Mandrem in North Goa, reported the Hindustan Times.
“On Wednesday, Hamal was found at a hotel in Chopdem village along with two other women, who are her friends,” the police officer said.
Earlier, Mayor Hamal had said the family received a message from Ms Aarti’s friend that she had lost contact with her. When the family tried to reach her, they got no response and alerted the police.
A thorough scanning of CCTV footage turned pivotal in tracing her, the police said.
The woman’s family members also arrived in Goa to assist with the search, reported The Times of India.
Ms Aarti’s sister Arzoo Hamal later posted an update on Facebook where she thanked the local people “who were very helpful”.
“We are eternally grateful to them,” she said.
