By Melissa Meehan
"We just want him home. It's been too long for a time out."
Every weekend Reva Chitnis and husband Jayant drive around Victoria searching for their missing son.
Tej Chitnis, 21, was last seen by his family leaving his home in Burwood East on April 27. He had said he would be home in time for dinner, but never arrived.
Security camera footage later showed video of his car – a silver VW Golf with the registration number TTF 517 – driving through Healesville, in what police now describe as the last official sighting.
Tej Chitnis's family are confident he's alive and are spending all their free time trying to track him down.Credit: Facebook
Despite being gone for more than two months and not touching his bank accounts or using his mobile phone, his family and police are confident he is alive.
Ms Chitnis says her son's disappearance could be explained by news he hadn't attended university "for some time".
While initially shocked by the news, the family was relieved – it gave a reason why he might have taken time away.
"Yes, we are Indian parents but we've never put pressure on the boys to say this or do that – that is what is so disappointing," Mrs Chitnis said.
Police say Tej's silver VW Golf, which hasn't been found, is an important piece of the puzzle.
"We would have said, 'OK, what do you want to do? Travel the world? Find your niche'?"
His friends and colleagues also want him home, workmates posting a video on social media calling on him to get in touch with someone to let them know he is OK.
Police say there have been a number of reported sightings of Tej Chitnis since he went missing.
Working from the last official sighting, Ms Chitnis said family and friends spent weekends in Healesville and surrounding areas in their search.
She said the Healesville community and police had been supportive in their search for Tej – including help from a local Aboriginal elder to search for him in bushland.
CCTV captured this image of Tej Chitnis' car on the Maroondah Highway, Healesville, on the day he disappeared from his home in Burwood.Credit: Victoria Police
They've even travelled to Phillip Island in their hunt.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Graeme Savage says police are still "very much" treating Tej's disappearance as a missing-persons case.
He said while the last confirmed sighting of Tej was in Healesville on the day he went missing, there had been other possible sightings police have been unable to confirm.
"We've had one at Berwick Railway Station and more recently in Melbourne at a McDonald's store," Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Savage said.
"They are all around the state. Some have more credibility than others."
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Savage said there were no signs that Tej's disappearance was planned, nor that he had got into trouble – and he urged the young man to contact his family if he was able to.
He also asked members of the public to cast their minds back to when Tej first went missing, and if they remembered even the slightest thing, to contact police.
Tej's car, which hasn't been found, is an important piece of the puzzle, he says.
AAP