The Delhi Police reunited seven children staying at special homes in the Capital and adjacent Chandigarh after they were found abandoned in separate instances with their respective family under a special drive, the Crime Branch said on Wednesday.
Part of a larger initiative dubbed operation ‘Milap’, the drive saw the constitution of special teams within the Crime Branch for linking abandoned children with available records pertaining to missing or kidnapped boys and girls.
“As many as 57 children have been rescued under operation Milap so far and it is being consistently pursued by our Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU),” said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (crime).
Among those reunited with their families were a 15-year-old male from West Bengal, a 13-year-old male from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, a 12-year-old, ten-year-old and a 13-year-old from Prasad Nagar in Central Delhi, a ten-year-old from Nabi Karim and a 12-year-old from Chandigarh.
During the said drive, Mr. Yadav said, officials of the crime branch are required to check each and every child at Children Homes and follow up with “all out efforts” seeking clues about their parents or homes so that they can be restored properly.
Further, local police across the several districts of Delhi are asked to screen and document all the children residing at shelter homes, railway platforms, bus stands, roads, religious places and similar locations.
Their photographs are taken by the concerned police officials and documentation is undertaken to link them properly.
“In cases where background details were found to be incomplete or sketchy, children were taken into confidence and, after compassionate and persuasive conversation, revealed minor clues about their native places. On the basis of these clues and details, their parents were contacted either through telephone or local police stations,” Mr. Yadav added.
