Lizard in food: Two boys run away from hospital

BENGALURU: Two of the 105 children of a government boys’ home who were taken to Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health following a food poisoning scare post Sunday dinner, have gone missing.The home’s authorities believe that the two boys — a 16-year-old from Chhattisgarh and a 15-year-old from Ramanagar — went missing after all the boys were treated at the hospital.  

Fifteen children had taken ill after eating food apparently contaminated by a lizard at Balakara Balamandira in Hombegowda Nagar on Sunday night.It was only on taking a headcount at the hospital that the home’s officials realised that the two teenagers were missing.

The Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) Director,  under which the home is governed, has filed a missing complaint with the Siddapura police.Tanushree Deb Berma, Director, ICPS, Women and Child Development Department, said, “As far as the food poisoning goes, we have sent show cause notice to the staff concerned, and the cook who was provided from an outsourcing agency and not regular staff has been changed.”

A senior police officer at Siddapura Police Station said, “We are searching for the missing children.”Sudha Rani, superintendent of the home, said both the missing boys were brought to the home just two weeks ago. Bosco Mane, an NGO which rescues abandoned or runaway children, had referred both the boys to the home.

One was rescued from the City Railway Station while another from a bus stop near Bidadi. After getting treatment at the hospital, they left the main group on the pretext  of answering nature’s call and made good their escape, the  superintendent said. “We have shared the photos of the boys with the police as well as their details and efforts are on to trace them,” she said.

The Siddapura police also said an alert has been sent to all police stations around the city and police in mufti are on the alert at the railway stations and bus stands in Bengaluru to look for them.