Missing for 22 yrs, man rejoins family with help of Haryana cops

Chandigarh: An eight-month long investigation by a team of Haryanapolice has helped reunite a 29-year-old man with his family in Uttar Pradesh, over two decades years after he went missing, an official said on Monday.

Separated from his family at the age of seven after he was allegedly abducted by someone and later abandoned, Amit grew up in different children’s homes in Delhi. Rajesh Kumar, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Haryana Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), who led the investigation, on Monday said Amit was recently reunited with his family after 22 years.

Amit’s relentless search for his family finally bore fruit after he came in contact with ASI Kumar came a few months ago when the officer had gone to Delhi in connection with a missing child’s case. With only fragmented memories of an oil mill in his village and a place named “Bala Chowk” shared by Amit, ASI Kumar embarked on a meticulous investigation to trace his family. Sharing details about the case, Kumar said Amit’s parents got separated over 22 years ago, after which he had been living with his maternal grandfather in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. After some time, his father came and took Amit along with him to Saharanpur.

One day, while Amit was out to purchase some items from a nearby shop, he was allegedly kidnapped by someone. “Amit, who was then aged 7, said that he remembers that someone took him along and when he woke, up he found himself on a train to Mumbai,” Kumar said.

“Amit told me that when he reached Mumbai, sensing that the child was from a north Indian state, someone put him on a train to Delhi. From there, his life took different turns,” Kumar told PTI.

When Amit reached Delhi, he did not have any clue about his home and kept roaming here and there before the Delhi police spotted him and shifted him to a children’s home in Alipur in the national capital, the officer said. “After a few years, he was shifted to another children’s home in Delhi and later to another one in Ghaziabad, where he started doing a job as he grew up,” he said.

ASI Kumar said he had gone to Delhi in September, 2023 in connection with a missing child’s case from Haryana’s Rewari. During this visit, he met Amit who told him that he, too, had gone missing many years ago. “Amit gave me faint clues about where he lived, taking names of some chowk... He said there were bullock carts in the village and sugarcane fields. I tried to gather as many clues possible by asking what kind of clothes people used to wear in his area,” the officer said.

“I started working on the clues which ultimately led me to the village. When I went there, I asked whether any child had gone missing 22 years ago. An old man who lived in the neighbourhood said a child had gone missing but could not be found.

He also gave me further clues on which my team and I started working,” he said. The investigation finally led the team to reach Amit’s maternal uncle in Muzaffarnagar who said Amit’s mother was now living in Ghumawti village in the same district.

The ASI and his team finally traced the woman and reunited Amit with his mother. Tears of joy rolled down Amit’s mother’s face as she embraced her long-lost son after two decades and the entire family expressed their gratitude to the police team. ASI Kumar and his team have so far helped reunite 800 missing persons with their families over the last many years.