Bhubaneswar: Father of second year AIIMS Bhubaneswar MBBS student Suhail Aijaz Kataria, who went missing from here on February 8, returned to Kashmir on Friday after the cops failed to trace him.

However Aijaz Ahmed Kataria, the father, said the family still hoped his son would return safely.

"We are disappointed but we have not lost hope though one month has passed since Suhail's disappearance. Though the police had informed us that Suhail's last location was traced to Howrah, it is still not clear whether it was Suhail himself or his phone that had reached there since the police have not been able to find any other evidence," said Aijaz, a school teacher by profession.

Aijaz, whose family is from Kashmir's Kupwara district, stayed in Bhubaneswar for more than two weeks in the hope of the police finding Suhail.

He also met several police officers including deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi during his stay.

Suhail had left AIIMS after telling his friends he was going to attend a friend's wedding in Chandigarh, the institute authorities lodged a missing complaint with the police on February 18.

The cops later searched his room and found a letter addressed to his parents and friend where he has written "I Quit".

The police suspected that the youth had written the letter owing to academic pressure.

A three-member police team reached Delhi on Friday to find the missing student. The team was sent to the national capital after Aijaz received a phone call from Delhi with the caller claiming to have seen a youth looking Suhail at a metro station.

The police said the caller had made the call after coming across the missing student's photograph in a newspaper advertisement.

Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said the team will go through the CCTV footage of various Delhi metro stations and the airport in an effort to trace him.

"The team will also interact with the caller," said Bhoi.