Mumbai: Police bring missing child to safety in 36 hours

Representational image. Pic/iStock

Mumbai police's ‘Operation Muskan' cheered a Malad-based family whose 10-year-old child, who has a mental illness, went missing on January 1. With dedicated efforts, officers of Crime Branch Unit XII found the child within 36 hours. The child was found on a footpath outside Mumbai Central station on Wednesday afternoon.

According to police sources, the child lives in a chawl near the station in Malad East. He went missing around 12.15 pm on January 1. Owing to his mental illness, the child cannot communicate very well.

The child's family includes his father, a mathadi labourer, his mother and an elder school-going brother. After he went missing, the family searched for him extensively in nearby areas but could not find him. Eventually, they approached Dindoshi police, who registered a case.

Considering that the case involved the possible kidnapping of a child, the Crime Branch Unit XII also began probing the matter simultaneously. Unit XII officers examined footage from hundreds of CCTV cameras to find the child. It was discovered that the child had boarded a local train towards Churchgate.

With further meticulous review of CCTV camera footage, the child was spotted alighting at Mumbai Central station. The officers searched the area adjoining the station thoroughly and found him sleeping on a footpath near the station on Wednesday afternoon. "The officers brought the child safely back and handed him over to his parents at Dindoshi police station," said an officer from Crime Branch's Unit XII.

The officers worked under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Raj Tilak Roushan, Senior Police Inspector (PI) Sudhir Dalvi, Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) Nilofar Shaikh and Police Constable Chandrakant Shirsath.