Missing autistic teenager Tarun Gupta spotted in Varanasi

Tarun's father Vinod Kumar Gupta. File pic

It has been eight months since Tarun Gupta - the 16-year-old autistic teenager - got mixed up with an election procession near his home in Colaba and went missing. Since then, Tarun's father Vinod Kumar Gupta has invested over R15 lakh running pillar to post to find his missing son.

However, amid the entire COVID-19 scenario, on Sunday at 10:30 pm, Vinod Kumar received a call from a resident of Varanasi saying he fed Tarun a few days back. "He [the resident] said that he spotted Tarun on the main road outside Varanasi station about eight days back and that Tarun was not wearing his spectacles as he does in the pictures that are being circulated. He said that Tarun was sitting in a queue outside the station asking for food and that he himself fed him," Vinod Kumar told mid-day. "I have a few relatives and friends who live in Varanasi and have reached out to them, asking them to look for Varun nearby the station. But it is tough during the lockdown," he added.

Vinod believes that if they manage to follow the trail before it goes cold, they could find Tarun in Varanasi. "Tarun alighted from a Sawantwadi train at Dadar station on October 3 at 11:30 pm. Between this time and 3 am, there was only one train that goes via Dadar - the Mahanagari Express which goes from Mumbai to Varanasi. There is a very high chance that he got on to that train," he said.

Railway cops served second reminder
The failure of Railway Police in uniting Tarun with his family has reached a new low. The RPF has not sent reports about the progress in the search for Tarun to the Ministry of Women and Child Development. On May 7, a letter signed by the Under-Secretary to the Government of India sent a second reminder to the Commissioner of Police (Railways) informing that they had not 'received any report' in his case. "You are, therefore, requested to look into the matter urgently and take immediate action on the complaint," the letter stated.

May 7
Day the Railway Police received second reminder from Centre

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