2-year-old goes missing in Govandi, reunited with kin

The family rejoiced on being reunited with the toddler

A day after a two-year-old boy went missing from outside his home in Govandi, the Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 6 successfully reunited him with his family. The police team left no stone unturned in their search, forming different teams to search for the boy across different areas, including local mosques and children's shelters, as well as combing through CCTV footage. Thanks to their efforts, the boy was found safe at spot more than 2km away from his home, after he wandered away from his niehgbourhood.

The boy's father Tabrez Ansari, 27 - who is an AC repair technician residing in Baiganwadi, Govandi - said the toddler went missing on the afternoon of August 8. "My son was playing outside our home when he went missing. We searched for him, but with no sight of the boy till nightfall, we approached the police," said the father in his statement to the police.

The Shivaji Nagar police registered a kidnapping case under Section 137 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. As the case involved a minor who may possibly have been abducted, Crime Branch Unit 6 got involved in the
investigation as well. "On Friday, we formed different teams and started the search in localities across Shivaji Nagar and Govandi. Some teams checked footage from 20 CCTV cameras, while others started going door to door to gather information from locals. A few went to mosques and children's shelters, where children are often abandoned," said Bharat Ghone, senior police inspector, Crime Branch Unit 6.

The police also showed the boy's photographs to local residents to check if anyone had spotted him. "While showing his picture to a woman near Darul Imam Masjid in Shivaji Nagar, our sub-inspector learnt that another woman had found the boy near Veer Sarvarkar English medium school - more than 2 kms away from his home. The woman asked locals if they knew where the boy lived, but no one had a clue. The rescuer luckily gave her contact number to the woman at the mosque before taking the boy home. Our team contacted the woman and reunited him with his parents," said Ghone.