A Class X student from Khar Pethambe in Poynad, Alibaug, who had run away from home fearing that he would not get a good score in mathematics in the board examinations, has been brought back from Chennai by the police.
Saahil Patil (15) was found missing on February 5 by his mother. “At 6.15 a.m. every day, he goes to tuition, then to school, again to tuition, and then comes home. On that day, he did not have school but tuition. When I came back from work in the evening, I did not find him at home. I called his tuition teacher but he said that my son had not shown up for the tuition,” Swati Patil, Saahil’s mother, said.
Panicked, she started looking for him everywhere. “I looked for him at the theatre and called our relatives in Mumbai, but no one had any clue. Later in the day, I filed a case of kidnapping with the Poynad police,” she said.
On the night of February 6, Saahil rang up home and said that he was at a railway station in Chennai. “We heaved a sigh of relief when we heard his voice. He had borrowed someone’s cell phone to call me. I spoke to the man and he told me that he would hand over Saahil to the child help centre at the railway station,” Ms. Patil said.
A team consisting of assistant police inspector Suhas Avhad and constable Vijay Mhatre from Poynad police station, Saahil’s father Vilas Patil, and advocate Prathamesh Patil left for Chennai and after completing the formalities came back with the boy on Sunday.
“We took him into confidence, and after a lot of talking, he finally opened up. He said that he was not good in maths and since his board exams were due next month, he was afraid that he would score less and felt like leaving home,” Mr. Mhatre said.
After leaving the house on February 5, Saahil took a ST bus to Rewas and from there he went to Bhaucha Dhakka via boat. He then reached Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and got into the next available train, which was for Chennai. “While leaving home, as usual he had taken his tiffin box. He was given food at the help centre. He had never travelled alone anywhere and we never thought he could travel that far. We are glad that he did not end up in wrong hands,” Ms. Patil said.
While Ms. Patil works in a bag manufacturing unit owned by her brother-in-law, her husband works in Mumbai at a private firm and comes home once in a week. Ms. Patil said they had never pressured Saahil for studies and he had always scored more than 70% marks.
