Mystery surrounds disappearance of French cyclist Jean-Baptiste Talleu soon after he landed in Mumbai early December last year. His family’s attempts to trace him have come to a naught.

“His family has lodged a missing person complaint with the Sahar police station,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Airport Zone) R N Tadvi said.

According to his family, Talleu, 26, arrived here from Dubai on December 4 as part of his world bicycling tour. After landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, he withdrew Rs 1,000 from an Axis Bank ATM on the Andheri-Kurla Road. Thereafter, he has simply vanished.

Talleu had chucked his job as web designer and bought a touring bike to travel across the world. After a few trips to Germany and Corsica for training, he embarked on a world tour from south of France.

He started his journey on July 17 and cycled around Italy, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Iran and Dubai before landing in Mumbai.

He even called his mother on December 2 from Dubai before starting for India. After that, there was no news from him.

The family, through friends here, on Sunday published a ‘missing person’ advertisement in a couple of Mumbai newspapers and also the church newspaper, The Examiner.

“Unfortunately, barring a couple of media calls, we have not heard from anybody who can give us good leads on Jean,” a family friend, who declined to be identified said.

Churches in Mumbai and Pune have been alerted to be on a lookout for the cyclist since he may have interacted with members of the Catholic community.

The family has also sounded out visitors to tourist hotspots in India like Goa, Kochi, Bangalore and Puducherry where Talleu might have been.

The family has also contacted spiritual retreats, including Osho Rajneesh’s ashram in Pune, a hub of foreign nationals.