West Bengal: Runaway child rescued at Dum Dum Metro station

KOLKATA: A child weeping and roaming aimlessly at the Dum Dum Metro station on a busy Friday evening may have gone unnoticed for hours had he not walked close to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) booth.
He was immediately spotted by Binod Kumar, an RPF ASI and taken to the booth. On being questioned, the 12-year-old said that he is from Lalgola in Murshidabad. Initially, authorities thought that he had come to the city with his parents or other relatives and got separated. After obtaining his father's mobile number from the boy and calling up, the authorities were shocked. The child had run away from school and boarded a train to Kolkata.
"Had he been spotted by criminals, the boy could have become a victim of trafficking. This happened around 6pm when the station premises are quite crowded. We have commended the RPF personnel for his role. It seems that the boy got off a train from Murshidabad at Dum Dum Jn and then entered the Metro station. He must have lost his nerves there and started crying as he didn't know what to do next. He was then taken to the station superintendent's office from where officers of the Sinthi police station collected him," Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee said.
The boy's parents reached Kolkata on Saturday with necessary documents and collected him from the police station after a proper verification process.