7-year-old boy runs away from ‘mother’ to avoid a life of begging

By Gunwanti Paraste

Child fled when an NGO had taken him and a woman for DNA testing to Sassoon hospital; he was found by police on Friday

In an unusual case to come under the radar of the authorities, a seven-year-old boy ran away from a woman claiming to be his mother, to allegedly free himself from a life of begging that she was ‘forcing upon him’.

At the time of the incident earlier this week, both woman and child had been brought to Sassoon General Hospital by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for DNA testing, so as to confirm their relationship. Fortunately, after probing the minor’s disappearance, Bund Garden police were able to locate and apprehend him near Talegaon Dabhade on Friday evening.

In this case, Prabhakar Sukhdev Khandre, an employee of NGO Balgram at Shel-Pimpalgaon, had filed a complaint at Bund Garden police station (PS) on the evening of May 7. Charges of kidnapping were applied against unknown persons under section 363 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

As per the first information report (FIR) lodged by Khandre, he has been associated with Balgram since 2013, and resides on the shelter’s premises with his family. One of his responsibilities is to induct new children in, as well as to hand kids over to their legal guardians.

The story involving Suresh Anil Jadhav (7) began on March 21 this year, when the boy was found lost and wandering, and admitted to the Aadhaar Shishuvivhar at Akurdi, as there was no way to ascertain his parents’ history. However, since Aadhaar only admits children up to six years of age, officials there decided to send Suresh elsewhere.

On March 28, Suresh was taken to Balgram — but on the same day, Geetanjali Yadav (35) showed up at the shelter and claimed he is her son. A missing person complaint had been filed earlier in March about Suresh’s disappearance at Dehu Road police station, and she is believed to have been informed by them about his emergence.

Khandre’s FIR has stated that according to the law, Balgram asked for verification documents and proof of their relationship, but Geetanjali professed she had none. “So, we produced them both before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) that very day, which decided that a DNA test would be required to resolve this unsurety,” Khandre explained.

Initially, Geetanjali was not ready for the test. Khandre told Mirror, “She said she doesn’t trust the hospital. However, with some counselling, she reluctantly agreed after a long argument. Even when we reached the hospital, she was still not convinced, but we managed to reassure her about the test. But when our turn came 10 minutes later, the boy had disappeared.”

The boy and woman had been accompanied by Balgram caretaker Sunanda Heeraji Kathwate to the medical facility. As they waited amid a large crowd of patients, Geetanjali gave Suresh Rs 10 to go buy an ice cream — but after the boy left, he simply did not return. When NGO staffers asked Geetanjali where her son is, she allegedly claimed he ran away as he did not want to stay at their shelter. Later, Bund Garden police were contacted to file the kidnapping case.

Khandre added, “When we were counselling the boy initially, he had told us that he was not interested in staying with his mother as she was forcing him to beg. He told us that he is interested in going to school to study, which his mother was refusing to do. According to him, she kept sending him to temples and traffic signals to beg for alms.”’

Confirming the development, senior police inspector Hanif Mujawar of Bund Garden PS said, “The seven-year-old boy went missing from Sassoon shortly before a DNA test. We filed a kidnapping case and after investigations, the child was found. Still, investigation process is on to determine where the minor will be handed over.”