The reach of social media proved to be the hero in a missing case after a young boy was successfully reunited with his parents, bringing a happy ending to the story. The police and an autorickshaw driver also played vital roles in ensuring that the boy was back with his parents within three days.
It all began when Marilingappa, 10, the only son of Bhimappa and Bhimavva, labourers from Raichur, ventured out to Sampigehalli to visit his aunt on Thursday, but lost his way.
The family was residing in Vijayanagar at an under- construction site where they were working. His parents returned from work and realised that their son was missing and started searching for him.
Meanwhile, the Yelahanka beat police, who found the boy, took him to the station and sounded an alert at the control room before circulating his information along with his photograph on social media and WhatsApp groups of staff members of the station with a request to share the information to help find the parents.
Their efforts proved fruitful as an autorickshaw driver from Vijayanagar, who is acquainted with the couple and the missing boy, received the forwarded message and sounded out the parents on Saturday.
The parents, along with the autorickshaw driver, rushed to the station and after formalities were completed, the boy was handed over to the parents.
After counselling the parents, Yelahanka inspector K.P. Sathyanarayana decided to take care of the boy’s education and assigned constable Basavaraj Patil to admit him to a government residential school in Raichur and supervise his education.
This is the second such incident in a short span of time. On June 5, the beat police rescued a six-year-old girl, Shrusti, near Yelahanka railway station and using social media, managed to trace the parents and reunited them.
