17-year-old boy gets father’s phone number inked on arm

Back home after 2 years; kin hope he does not go missing again

Abhishek Katara (left), who went missing, shows the tattoo as his brother looks on, in the Capital.

When 17-year-old Abhishek Katara returned home in March, two years after he had gone missing, his family welcomed him with trumpets and dhol . Three days ago, they made sure he never goes missing again and permanently inked his right arm with his father’s number and ‘New Delhi’.

Puneet Katara (20), Abhishek’s brother, recalled that the boy, developmentally challenged, was cycling near his residence in RK Puram on June 18, 2016 and did not return home.

Seven days later, he was put in an orphanage in Karnal by someone who had found him struggling in the city.

“He is not mentally fit. We had completely lost hope of his return but we are grateful to God and police that we have him back. Now, to make sure it doesn’t happen again, we have got a tattoo on his hand,” the brother said. Their father Vijay Kumar Katara is an employee of the Reserve Bank of India.

Sharing another story, Savita, from Bihar and a resident of Paschim Vihar, who had lost her brother (eight-year-old at the time) Lalu in 2014 said her parents blamed her for losing him and never spoke to her in the last four years till he was finally found in February this year from a children’s home in Hisar.

‘Parents blamed me’

“He had come with me and my husband from Bihar to spend a few days with us. We were staying in Shastri Nagar then and he went missing from there. When my parents were told, they cut off ties with me and blamed me for not taking care of him. I am so happy he has been found. Now, they are talking to me again,” said Ms. Savita.

The police said that, in Hisar, his name was registered as Chhotu alias Arjun but the father’s name was given as Mahesh Choudhary, both in the home’s records and ZIPNET, which led the police to track his whereabouts.