Mumbai: Milkman forgets sleeping 6-year-old on late night train

Omprakash Yadav and Lipika are reunited, thanks to the RPF

Half asleep and in a hurry to open his milk shop for the morning customers, a Dombivli-based milkman forgot his six-year-old daughter on a long-distance train in the dead of night. Over the next two hours, he and his wife remained in utter panic as the RPF launched a search for her. They found her still peacefully asleep on her berth, unaware of all the drama that had passed.

Omprakash Yadav had gone to Shirdi with his wife and daughter, along with his brother-in-law's family. The group had been travelling non-stop for over 24 hours, and Omprakash was half asleep when he alighted from the train at Kalyan station at 3.27 am. "I run a milk shop, and I cannot shut my business for a long time. We reached Shirdi in the wee hours of June 12, visited the temple and caught our return train the night around 10:12 pm. We all were very tired and in need of sleep," recalled Omprakash. "We were all still asleep when the train reached Kalyan. I jolted awake and woke everyone up in a hurry. Most of us got down at the station, but the train started moving before my brother-in-law Ravishankar could alight. I told him to get down at the next station instead."

Utter panic
It was only after the train had left that Omprakash realised his daughter Lipika was nowhere to be found. "I thought she must be with my wife, and my wife thought she was with me," said the milkman, who was wide awake after he realised his mistake. He then called his brother-in-law, but realised that Ravishankar's phone was in his wife's bag. Meanwhile, Ravishankar got down from the train at Thane station, once again leaving little Lipika behind.

"Omprakash alerted the Kalyan stationmaster, who then called the Dadar stationmaster and instructed him to check the train once it arrived at Dadar station," said Satish Menon, senior inspector, Dadar RPF. In his panic, Omprakash gave the RPF the wrong coach number, causing further alarm when the cops didn't find the girl there. They continued the search though, and around 4.45 am, they found her in the right coach, still fast asleep. Omprakash boarded another express train to Dadar, and was reunited with his daughter at 5:20 am.

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No. of hours in which he was reunited with the girl

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