Mumbai: Hotelier helps cop trace missing girl within hours

Police with the girl. Pic/Hanif Patel

Just hours after a 16-year-old mentally challenged girl went missing from a Vasai-based orphanage, she was traced to the local railway station - thanks to the owner of a hotel in the area, who circulated her picture on social media and shared it with friends to help a cop find her. Within 15 minutes, a friend contacted him and said that he had spotted the girl at the railway station. Soon after she was handed over to the local cops.

Avinash Kuse, owns Samadhaan restaurant, located outside the Vasai West railway station. He also runs Samadhaan Foundation NGO at Vasai. The girl was living at the Libiniya Niketan orphanage at Holy Village in Vasai West. Police said she went missing from on Monday evening.

Speaking to mid-day, Kuse said, "Around 11 pm on Monday, assistant sub-inspector Sunil Bhagirath arrived at my hotel and ordered a cup of tea. He looked very worried so I asked him what the matter was. He told me that a 16-year-old mentally challenged girl had gone missing from an orphanage and that he looked for her for about four to five hours but could not find her." "I decided to help him and shared the girl's photo on social media and forwarded it to my friends on WhatsApp. Within 15 minutes, my friend Bali Sharma called me and said he had spotted the girl at the ST bus depot at Vasai West railway station. We rushed to the spot and brought her to my restaurant. Later, she was handed over to the police," Kuse added.

Bhagirath said, "Kuse circulated the photo on social media and within 15 minutes he received a call from a friend who gave us information about her. We have handed the girl to the orphanage."