Telangana HC directs Centre, state to locate missing Hyderabad student in Finland

The Telangana High Court has directed the Indian central government and the Telangana state government to intensify efforts to trace an 18-year-old engineering student from Hyderabad who has been missing in Finland for 45 days. The court's order came after the student's parents filed a petition, expressing distress over the lack of progress.

Gujja Manideep Reddy traveled to Finland in 2025 to study engineering at the University of Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT). His family last communicated with him on May 5, when he mentioned going to a bakery. Since then, all attempts to contact him have failed, according to his father, G Muthyam Reddy.

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He asked for some money, which my wife, Mamata, had sent to him online. After that he did not contact us. All our attempts to reach him since then have failed.

Frustrated by the perceived lack of headway from the Indian Embassy and Finnish authorities, Muthyam Reddy approached the high court. The court has ordered the central government and Telangana police to submit responses detailing the actions taken so far. Notices have also been issued to the Indian Embassy in Helsinki and its consular wing, demanding information on diplomatic and administrative efforts to locate Manideep Reddy.

Appearing for the Union External Affairs Ministry, standing counsel NVR Rajya Lakshmi informed the court that a missing person case has been registered with the local police in Finland and an investigation is ongoing. The ministry is actively monitoring the situation. Finnish police information suggests Manideep traveled about 100 kilometers from his shared residence before his trail went cold, with his last known location being a K-Market store in Helsinki. Despite inquiries with friends and university officials, no concrete information about his whereabouts has emerged.

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The ministry is following up the matter.