An eight-year-old boy who had gone missing from Kharghar two years ago, was traced to a shelter home in Delhi with the help of the ‘track missing child’ website.
Parshu Pawar, now 10, was fond of travelling in local trains and used to catch random ones for fun. In October 2016, he travelled to Panvel from Kharghar, after which he accidentally boarded an Ernakulam-bound train. “Parshu’s parents sell flowers for living. Since he did not return home, they registered a case of kidnapping with Kharghar police station,” senior police inspector Anand Chavan, Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) said.
After investigating for close to two years, with no leads in the case, it was transferred to AHTU in December. The unit took it up as a part of Muskaan operation.
“We noticed the local police had not created the boy’s profile in the ‘track missing child’ website so we created one and uploaded his photo. After a week, we received information from Delhi that a similar looking boy was put in a shelter home there,” Mr. Chavan said.
The AHTU officers and the boy’s parents left for Delhi. The boy and his family instantly identified each other. “The boy wept when he saw his father. They checked for all his birth marks and a stitch on his left arm and it was confirmed that it was the same boy,” Mr. Chavan said.
Later, the boy narrated what had happened. He had alighted the train after reaching Ernakulam, where he was found by the railway police. “He was initially placed at a shelter home at Thrissur. On asking where belonged, he said Okhla instead of Owe in Kharghar. The officers thought that he came from Okhla in Delhi and sent him to a shelter home there. The Delhi police looked for his parents locally but couldn’t find them,” police sub inspector Sanjay Kshirsagar from AHTU said.
