An 18-year-old engineering student from Hyderabad has gone missing in Finland for the past 45 days, after which the Telangana High Court (HC) on Saturday directed both the Union as well as the state governments to rev up efforts to trace him. The student who went missing is named Gujja Manideep Reddy. His parents sought judicial intervention after alleging that despite repeated appeals to various authorities, little progress had been made in locating their son. 

Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana HC issued notices to the authorities concerned and sought detailed responses regarding the steps taken so far to trace Manideep. 

The case will be heard on June 24, 2026. 

Manideep vanishes after brief conversation with family

Manideep had gone to Finland in 2025 to pursue an engineering course at the University of Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT). His father, G Muthyam Reddy, said he heard last from his son on May 5, 2026. 

Addressing the media, Reddy said his son had contacted the family to request money before stepping out to purchase snacks from a bakery. The distressed father said, “He asked for some money, which my wife Mamata transferred to him online. After that conversation, we never heard from him again.” 

Since then, the family has been persevering in efforts to reach him through phone calls and other means of communication, but to no avail. 

No breakthrough drives parents to court

Irked by the lack of concrete information regarding their son’s whereabouts, his parents approached the Telangana HC seeking judicial intervention. The family, which resides in the Vaidehi Nagar Colony in Vanasthalipuram on the outskirts of Hyderabad, alleged that efforts by the Indian Embassy and Finnish authorities had not yielded any significant breakthrough. 

Responding to this, the HC instructed both the Telangana Police and the Central government to submit reports detailing the actions undertaken so far. It also served notices to the Indian Embassy in Helsinki, its consular wing, and other relevant authorities to explain the diplomatic and administrative measures being pursued in the case. 

Finnish Police probing case

During the hearing, the counsel representing the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed the HC that Finnish Police had already registered a missing person case and were probing it actively. 

According to information shared with the family, the Finnish cops discovered that Manideep had travelled nearly 100 kms away from his rented accommodation before authorities lost track of his movements. 

His last known location was traced to a K-Market store in Helsinki. Despite interrogating his roommates, friends and university officials, the investigators have yet to uncover reliable clues regarding his disappearance. 

Family seeks probe into digital, travel records

Muthyam Reddy has urged authorities to undertake a more comprehensive probe by examining digital footprints, banking transactions, academic records, transportation data and surveillance footage that could help reconstruct his son’s movements. 

He has also sought regular updates from Finnish authorities regarding the progress of the investigation.