Eid may have been over a week ago, but for the Khan family, it was time for jubilation again, as their lost mentally-challenged 15-year-old just strolled back into their lives yesterday
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Eid may have been over a week ago, but for the Khan family, it was time for jubilation again, as their lost mentally-challenged 15-year-old just strolled back into their lives yesterday. In June, Umar had gotten lost and even as the family ran pillar-to-post in their hunt for him, the efforts were all in vain. Their son was gone for good.
How he went missing
After Umar went missing from his Sanjay Nagar home in Kurla, his parents started enquiring everywhere. “First, I went to the police station, the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and the Bandra Terminus. I also checked with my relatives in Allahabad. But nobody had heard from him,” Rafiq Rashid Khan, Umar’s father, adding, “Then I started checking all the children homes in Mumbai, Thane; I even checked the hospital mortuaries. There was no sign of him.”
Rafiq then went to the Ghatkopar police station to register a missing person’s complaint. However, he alleges that they didn’t even listen to him and instead brushed him off with a cursory ‘We will inform you when we find him’. After he made 4-5 rounds to the police station, only to find them still not cooperating with him, he and his family gave up all hope of locating their son ever.
Previous instance
This was not the first time that Umar had gone missing. Around eight months ago, the boy had gone missing from his home, but her was found in Allahabad within 10 days. That time, luckily, the UP police had taken him to a remand home when they found him wandering on the station.
Found in Pune
But how did Umar end up at his doorstep yesterday? A series of fortunate events. In July, even as Umar was hanging around yet another railway station, this time in Pune, he was found by the Pune police, who asked him about his kin. However, he was unable to provide any information so the police took him to child welfare committee on July 6. He spent the entire month at a remand home there, but slowly started saying that he was from Ghatkopar in Mumbai. Based on this, he was sent to Mumbai on September 1 and the CWC issued a tracing order to the Juvenile Aid Police Unit (JAPU).
Police inspector Vilas Datir, API Shubhda More, PSI Tarachand Jagtap, ASI Rajendra Pawar and head constable Aziz Momin took on the task of helping the boy find his home again. They divided themselves in two teams — one carrying a photograph of Umar; the other took him personally around. This went on for three days between September 16-19.
Serendipitous reunion
Then on September 19, when the JAPU unit was returning from the Ghatkopar east area and passing by the Phoenix Market City mall, Umar got excited and kept pointing towards it. “We stopped the car and got down,” said Momin. “I had worked at Kurla police station and knew the place well, so we took him to Sanjay Nagar. When we came up the Noorani Masjid, Umar couldn’t control his excitement and ran towards his home. We followed him and when we caught up, a lady in tears was hugging him. We asked her to identify herself and she said, ‘I am his mother’. It was an emotional reunion for the family as well as for us,” he added.
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