Hyderabad: A couple was reunited with their son who had been missing for eight months. The Kushaiguda police which was taking part in an ‘Operation Smile’ programme to trace and rescue missing children had missing boy from Alwal using the Darpan mobile application.
Police said the boy, E. Rohit, 11, son of E. Bhikshapathi and Anjali, went missing from the Jonnabanda area of Alwal on May 28, 2019. The boy has an identical twin. Rohit, who is specially abled, had gone to play with friends but did not return home.
His parents searched for him and finally lodged a complaint with the Alwal police. The police unsuccessful in finding him but his details were uploaded into the Darpan application developed by the Telangana police to identify missing people.
It so happened that on May 28, Rohit was found at Damma-iguda, Jawaharnagar by a police patrol and handed over to ChildLine officials. As the boy was unable to share details of his parents and his residential address, he was admitted to the Carpe Diem Foundation Children Home.
Recently, as part of Operation Smile, the teams of the three commissionerates of Greater Hyderabad started searching for missing persons.
A team of Kushaiguda police on Wednesday night went to the home to see it had given shelter to anyone listed missing. When they ran the boy’s picture in Darpan, his details were matched. They intimated the Alwal police and Rohit was taken to the police station. The Alwal police called his parents and informed them.
Bhikshapathi and Anjali, and other family members who reached the Kushaiguda police station cried tears of happiness when they saw Rohit. The emotional reunion was captured by the police and the clip went viral on social media. The parents thanked the police for finding their son.
Since January 1, this year, 879 children including 183 girls were rescued by the police across the state. Among these, 192 boys and 49 girls from other states were also present. By Thursday, the police had handed over 442 rescued children to their parents, according to a police official.
