In May 2020, Ismail Ali ended his shift at a corner shop in Bradford, a day that seemed just like any other.

His coworkers expected the 46-year-old, known for his politeness and straightforward demeanor, to return to his usual spot behind the counter the next morning.

However, that afternoon, Mr. Ali left work wearing his red-hooded top and disappeared without a trace.

As days turned into months, detectives grew increasingly concerned, neighbors accepted his absence as permanent, and even his mother in India believed her son had met a tragic end.

Then, in a surprising twist this week, as detectives had just escalated his case to a murder investigation, Mr. Ali calmly walked into a local police station, leaving West Yorkshire baffled by this unexpected development.

The question now is: where has Mr. Ali been all these years, seemingly unharmed and unaffected?

With the married now 51-year-old firmly back among the living, the city has erupted with speculation – with echoes of the John Darwin saga, the notorious ‘canoe conman’ who staged his own death and lived undetected for years.

Some insist Mr Ali quietly slipped away to the south of England to work. Others whisper that he staged his own disappearance or may even have been living for years inside one of his family’s nearby homes.

Ismail Ali, 46, vanished without a trace after leaving work at Gulam Food Stores in the Lidget Green area of Bradford in May 2020. This CCTV image is the last known picture taken of him

When married Mr Ali packed up Gulam Food Stores in Bradford for the last time five years ago, it was the last time any of his friends and family saw him. Everyone thought he was dead

There are rumours, too, that he moved around the city in some form of disguise.

One friend said: ‘Ismail was a regular face around Bradford, everyone knew him. He was popular. But then one day he just disappeared off the face of the earth.

‘No one knew what happened to him. Everyone was talking about it, but no one seemed to know what happened to him.

‘I know he was very stressed before he vanished. He was having problems with his wife. There were lots of rows and stress at home.

‘Maybe he finally had enough and started a new life away from her. Maybe he faked his own death? No one knows.

‘One minute he was here, the next he was gone. Everyone is wondering where he’s been.’

Police raised the alarm when diminutive Mr Ali failed to return home after leaving his long-standing job at Gulam Food Stores, in Bradford’s Lidget Green area, on May 29, 2020.

One neighbour told a local newspaper, four months after ‘humble’ Mr Ali’s disappearance: ‘Everybody is talking about it. We are worried about him’.

Missing appeals came and went but there was no sign of the bearded shop worker, who had links to Dewsbury, Batley and Blackburn.

Then, this week, detectives at West Yorkshire Police suddenly announced they had arrested five people on suspicion of his murder – three women, aged 47, 54 and 55, and two men, aged 27 and 51.

A force press release exclaimed: ‘After extensive enquiries we now suspect that Ismail Ali is no longer alive, and we suspect that he may have been murdered.’

Yet, fast-forward less than 48 hours and Mr Ali casually walked into a police station front-desk and told stunned officers: ‘I’m alive.’

A friend, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I think he saw that some people close to him had been arrested on suspicion of his murder and so came back as he didn’t want them to get into trouble.

‘His conscience wouldn’t allow him to continue hiding if he thought they would go to prison for killing him.’

Businessman Rohan Patel, 59, added: ‘Everyone is wondering what happened to him and where he has been.

‘He obviously didn’t want to be found.’

Police, meanwhile, are now painstakingly unravelling five silent years – and probing why Mr Ali chose this moment to return.

Even Mr Ali’s mother in India believed he was dead. Then last week when five people close to him were arrested on suspicion of his murder, in an extraordinary and surreal twist, Mr Ali  turned up at a local police station to tell them: ‘I’m alive!’

Detectives in Bradford have raided three properties in the city including these two, which are neighbouring houses. Police said that they had launched a money laundering investigation after finding large amounts of cash at the properties 

Their shock was compounded by the discovery of a large amount of cash in raids linked to his supposed murder, sparking a parallel money-laundering investigation.

One of the three homes raided by police was on the very same road and just a stone’s throw from Mr Ali’s former workplace.

And more curiously, the two other properties targeted by detectives were adjoining terraced houses.

Their significance remains to be seen but it is a detail that has prompted inevitable comparisons to the case of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin, who staged his own death to claim life insurance while living in a bedsit accessed from his family home.

Mr Ali has claimed, according to a friend, to have been working in a shop in southern England for the past five years.

He is not in custody or under arrest but is being ‘safeguarded’, West Yorkshire Police say.

His former employer, who asked not to be named, was working behind the counter at Gulam Food Stores.

He said: ‘Five years ago so many officers came. One after another. They checked everything.

‘They got our statements. This time we did not know anything about what happened. He was living just across the road.

‘He worked for us for a long time. He was happy here. He went. We don’t know what the issue was.

‘Now he has been found safe and sound. That is the good news. But we don’t know where he went.

‘We don’t even know what police station he walked into.’

A neighbour said of the raids of the two adjoining homes in Beckside Close: ‘They broke the door down. They have been there for the past three days but have gone today.

‘There were four or five police vans outside the property from Monday.’

Another resident said: ‘It is like he came back from the dead’.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: ‘Detectives investigating the suspicious disappearance of Bradford man Ismail Ali in 2020 can confirm that he turned up at a police station yesterday reporting to be safe and well.

‘Officers are working to understand the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance. ‘

The bizarre police investigation has prompted feverish speculation amongst Mr Ali’s former neighbours as to what he has been doing over the past five years – with some saying he may have faked his own death  

Mr Ali’s family have been notified that he has been found safe and well and is being safeguarded whilst necessary checks are being made.

‘Following the arrests on Monday, house searches were carried out at three properties, and a large amount of cash was seized.

‘A number of the people who were arrested remain on bail for money laundering offences.

‘Enquiries will remain ongoing for some time into the money laundering offences.

‘Officers would like to thank members of the public who shared the appeal for Mr Ali.’