Indian Student Missing in Finland for Nearly Two Months

Manideep Reddy Gujja, an 18-year-old Indian engineering student at LUT University in Lahti, has been missing for nearly eight weeks. Despite ongoing search efforts by the police and his family, he has not yet been found.

According to the police, he was last seen in Helsinki on May 5. On May 21, the Häme Police appealed to the public for information regarding his whereabouts.

Major Finnish media outlets, including Ilta-Sanomat and MTV, have also reported on Gujja’s disappearance.

Before going missing, Gujja had asked his family for some money and traveled to Helsinki. The reason for his trip to Helsinki remains unknown.

Gujja, who is from Hyderabad, regularly attended his classes. His mother told The Indian Express that he was not very outgoing.

On May 5, Gujja asked his parents for 5,000 Indian rupees. “He called me and asked for money, so I sent it,” his mother told Indian media.

Finnish police discovered that he spent about 2,500 Indian rupees to travel by bus from Lahti to Helsinki. Why he came to Helsinki remains a mystery.

Since he went missing, his mobile phone has been completely switched off. His bank and credit cards have also not been used since then.

Parents denied Finnish visa

According to an Indian Express report, Finnish authorities have inquired at his residence, checked all available records, spoken to his roommates, reviewed lists of hospital admissions, and conducted searches through various government and transport agencies.

Despite extensive searches, his whereabouts and what happened to him remain unknown.

His parents tried to travel to Finland to search for their son, but their visa applications were rejected. According to Indian media, they are now seeking help from the Ministry of External Affairs through the courts.

After he went missing, his ID was used to log into the university system twice. It is not yet clear who performed those logins.

Finnish authorities have recently narrowed their search to the Kruunuvuorenranta shoreline in eastern Helsinki. Volunteer teams and sniffer dogs scoured the coastal area after investigators traced Reddy’s last phone signal to Saaristolaivastonkatu late on the night of his disappearance.

Gujja came to Finland in 2025 to study engineering.

Every year, thousands of students from South Asian countries—including Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—come to Finland for higher education.

While Finland records hundreds of missing person cases annually, most are resolved within days. Cases involving international students pose unique logistical challenges due to language barriers, limited local social networks, and strict data privacy laws.