Aditya Tiwari, aka MC Kode, the New Delhi-based rapper who went missing, was found by the Delhi Police in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old went missing on June 2 after posting a cryptic story on his Instagram profile hinting at suicide.
Tiwari went missing following an uproar on social media over an old video that surfaced on Twitter in which he was seen using obscene language against Hindu religious texts. His mother, Deepa Tiwari, had filed a missing person report in South Delhi’s Mehrauli Police Station on June 4 and a case of kidnapping was registered the next day.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Atul Kumar Thakur, DCP (South), said a team was sent to Jabalpur, and Tiwari was found at a friend’s place there.
A senior police officer told the website, “His mother told us he left his home in Saidullajab after posting a suicide note on Instagram. We found that his phone’s last location was in Noida on May 25. It was later switched off. We wrote to social media sites to provide Tiwari’s account details. During the investigation, we found Tiwari was in Madhya Pradesh.”
“After leaving Delhi, we presume he contacted his friend and went to live at his place. We haven’t questioned him yet and our team is bringing him back to Delhi. We will then ask him about his disappearance and how we went to Jabalpur,” Thakur told The Indian Express.
The controversy started after some Instagram handles shared a rap battle video from June 2016 in which Kode made some remarks about the Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata. Following this, he received intense hate on social media with some users demanding him to be jailed for his remarks.
One Twitter user even put a “cash prize” reward to find and bring Tiwari to him.
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Soon after, Tiwari posted an apology on his social media page. “I’ve angered a lot of people and that anger is understood and I deeply regret my actions…Currently all my details have been leaked including my address and there is a mass movement of people calling for a mob lynch of me and my family… Also local goons have placed a price on my head too. I am deeply sorry and I request you to please forgive me and spare me and the people associated to me their life,” he wrote.
When the trolls did not stop, he took to his Instagram and posted a story and wrote that his “selfish actions” would cause grief but he wanted to be at “peace” and “safeguard” the people around him.
Fearing that the rapper had ended his life, his friends had launched campaigns and search parties.