The Tavanampalle police in Chittoor district on Saturday night rescued a nine-year-old boy, believed to be impaired of speech and hearing, from a forest location near Madhavaram hamlet on Aragonda-Panjani road after receiving information from the local shepherds.
As per the information, a batch of shepherds returning home at dusk on Saturday heard the cries of a child from a forest location, abutting the Koudinya wildlife sanctuary. As they ventured into the thickets following the trail of the sound, they found a boy sitting under a tree all alone. The boy had reportedly kept himself aloof when they tried talking to him. As he started evading them, police were called to the spot.
“When we brought him to the police station (Tavanampalle), the boy was initially weeping. In a couple of hours, as he started feeling relaxed and comfortable around us, he tried to communicate but we could not understand him. We also gave him a paper and pencil, but in vain,” Sub-Inspector K. Rajasekhar told The Hindu.
The police officer said that despite repeated efforts to know his whereabouts, the boy could not respond to their questions as he showed signs of speech and hearing impairment.
On failing to get any information from the boy, they then started verifying with other police stations in the district about all missing cases to see if the photograph matched with the boy, but this exercise too did not yield any result.
“When we went to rescue him, we saw that the boy was carrying a school bag that contained a school uniform of blue trousers and a white shirt but had no label on them,” Mr Rajasekhar said.
After observing the circumstances in which they found him, the police suggested that the boy could have been abandoned by his parents from a neighbouring district or State. “We will verify the CC camera footage in surrounding villages and vital road points for any clues,” the police officer said.
CWC asked to intervene
As the police could not keep the boy in the station for long, the matter was taken to District Collector Narayana Bharat Gupta and Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar, who in turn made the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to intervene and shift him to Tirupati, by following the COVID-19 guidelines.