Social media platform Instagram proved to be a lifeline for the family of a Hyderabad teenager, who had been missing for over three months.
Jayesh Kanodia, 17, went missing from the city on January 17, and was finally located in Amritsar on Saturday. The breakthrough came on Sunday, when a person, while scrolling through Instagram at an eatery in Amritsar, stumbled upon a missing teenager’s post featuring Jayesh’s photo.
He noticed a resemblance between the boy in the post and a worker at the eatery. After being sure of his identity, he promptly contacted Jayesh’s parents via the provided contact number on the ‘missing teen’ poster.
“We spoke to the gentleman, and after a video call, we were certain it was our son. It was a big relief for us,” shared Shailesh Kanodia, Jayesh’s father.
Jayesh’s family rushed to Amritsar on Sunday morning and brought him back to Hyderabad by evening.
These three months had been a harrowing ordeal for the family, who tirelessly searched for their missing son. Following Jayesh’s disappearance, his cousin Sarvesh Kanodia took to social media, and enlisted Jubilee Hills police station to tweet the ‘missing’ poster. Sarvesh also personally shared the poster regularly across various platforms, reaching out to politicians, celebrities, and local authorities. He created a Whatsapp group too, where people roped in social media influencers and a few popular Instagram pages to share Jayesh’s story, police said.
After he went missing from Hyderabad, Jayesh was last seen at New Delhi Railway Station on January 24, with no further updates until the recent discovery. Police teams pursued every lead to locate Jayesh, said an official from the Jubilee Hills police station.
