Vijayawada: Repalle police acted with alacrity and traced two minor children within 48 hours of them walking out of their house unable to bear the harassment of their stepmother.
Bapatla superintendent of police Vakul Jindal said the kids – Tausif Alam, 13-year-old son, and Shabnam Khatoon 12-year-old daughter of Mohammad Nizam Alam, resident of Repalle working in Sri Venkateswara Ice Factory on JLB College Road, sneaked out of their house around the midnight of October 29.
Tausif and Shabnam are children of Nizam’s first wife but had been staying with their stepmother for past two months. Unable to bear her harassment, they decided to escape from the house. When Nizam woke up, he found his children missing and started looking for them.
Repalle police on patrol duty came across Nizam at 2 a.m. and questioned him. On coming to know the details, they informed Repalle town inspector S. Vijayachandra and sub-inspector Shaik Abdul Razzak, who constituted two teams for tracing the kids. They examined CCTV cameras that led them to Vijayawada railway station and bus stand.
Police then came to know that the children had passed through Eluru. When they reached there, they realised that the kids had headed to Jharkhand via Rajahmundry and Tuni. Bapatla police then contacted Jharkhand police who traced the missing kids on Wednesday.
Bapatla SP congratulated inspector Vijayachandra, sub-inspector Abdul and staff of Repalle Town police station Somasekhar, K. Bujji Raju and Pradeep for responding quickly and tracing the missing children within 48 hours. The kids have been handed over to their parents.
