A 16-year-old differently-abled boy who wandered away from his house was reunited with his family by the Saki Naka police within seven hours.
The police said the teenager, Sajid Ali Sheikh, was found wandering aimlessly in Saki Naka on Tuesday afternoon and was brought to the police station by passers-by. The police said Sajid was only able to tell his name and that he stayed in Govandi with his family.
Senior Police Inspector Avinash Dharmadhikari, Saki Naka police station, said, “We tried to help him give us the exact address, but he was only able to give vague information about where his house was located. We then contacted Govandi police, but the information provided by him was too vague and there was not even a Missing Person’s Complaint registered in his name.”
The police then took a picture of Sajid and uploaded it on their official Twitter handle, seeking information in case anyone recognised him. Despite 429 retweets no one responded. Then another team of policemen started scanning the CCTV footage in Saki Naka to trace Sajid’s movements since he wandered away from his home.
Mr. Dharmadhikari said, “We also circulated his picture on the WhatsApp groups we are part of. We then got in touch with some of our informants in the Govandi area. We sent them Sajid’s pictures and asked them to collect whatever information they could find out about him.”
The informants then fanned out in Govandi and spoke to scores of local residents. They soon learnt that a resident named Sayyed Ali was searching for his differently-abled son who had been missing since early afternoon.
The informants sought out Mr. Sheikh and showed him Sajid’s picture. Mr. Sheikh identified the picture as that of his son and the informants aleretd the Saki Naka police. Mr. Sheikh rushed to the police station and profusely thanked the officers for reuniting him with his son.
Mr. Dharamadhikari said, “We learnt that Sajid has wandered off in the past and his family managed to track him. This time, they were hesitant to involve the police and hence did not register a Missing Person’s Complaint with the Govandi police.”