KOLKATA: A 13-year-old boy from Garia went missing for 16 hours from his tuition class in the Golf Green area on Monday evening, throwing his parents into panic and keeping cops on their toes to trace him.
After a search, cops found the Class-VIII student in the temple town of Bishnupur in Bankura district around 1pm.
The boy told cops that he had gone to his maternal grandmother’s house there after being scolded by a teacher at his tuition class for being inattentive.
He was scared that his parents would also scold him after his teacher complained to them. “So, the boy ran away to escape being scolded by his parents at home,” said an officer.
After the boy was finally found at his grandmoher’s home, cops at Bansdroni polie station and Lalbazar heaved a sigh of relief as they had been trying to trace him since Monday night.
“We had been told that the boy had booked an app cab and gone to Howrah station, where we lost his tower location as he had switched off his mobile or its battery had died. The boy told us that he had spent the night at the station and boarded a Midnapore local on Tuesday morning. From Midnapore station, he took a train to Bishnupur,” said a police source.
“We were certain that he had boarded a train from Howrah after we spoke to several witnesses and traced the cab driver, who had taken him to the station,” said an investigating officer.
As the search continued, the boy’s relatives living outside the city were contacted and instructed to alert his parents and police if and when they came across him. “However, we traced him with the help of a source,” said an investigating officer.
Cops will counsel the boy to ensure that he does not make a similar mistake again.
“There have been many such instances before. But children, who flee from houses for adventure, are often unaware of its consequences,” said an officer of the detective department.
