Chennai: 'Rescued' by over-eager police, child finally reunites with family

Chennai: When 5-year old Kajal finally saw her mother on Thursday after more than two months of separation, she had the biggest smile on her face and she made sure she didn’t let go of her mother’s hand even for a minute. And the first thing she told her mother was that she had prayed to God everyday that her mother would return to find her.

Kajal has been praying since May 28, the day she was "mistaken" for a lost child by the child helpline officials at the Egmore railway station, from where she was scheduled to board a train to Assam with her mother, who had come to the city to visit a relative. Whilst her mother used the restroom, Kajal waited with the luggage outside when the railway police spotted her and then “rescued” her and contacted the child helpine services who then handed her over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

While the helpline officials were busy rescuing without verifying, Kajal's mother was frantically looking for her daughter at the Egmore station. Talking to DC in halting Hindi, she said that she gave an oral complaint to the police who said they couldn’t help since she had no photographs or documents of the child.

The mother tried to explain that she had left a bag with the child containing all the child’s documents including her birth certificate, her own documents, clothes and other belongings. “I was confused about what was happening, the police asked me told me to take the train back home and bring back a picture. They said they would let me know if they found my daughter,” the mother explained. Helpless and alone, the mother took the train back home at ten that very night.

“I would weep every night for my daughter. My husband and I would take turns to go to the Child Welfare Committee in Assam, but there wasn’t much I could do,” the mother continued. “If we had the money we would have been able to make more trips but we couldn’t afford it,” said Kajal’s father, a daily wage earner.

When the Child Welfare Committee in Chennai forwarded the details of the child to their counterpart in Assam, they then got in touch with the parents and gave them the good news. The elated parents were then told that the child would be sent to Assam with an escort. After endless waiting, the parents got in touch with the CWC in Chennai who told them they couldn’t find an escort and therefore the parents had to come themselves to take the child back. The parents then traveled in the general compartment as they were unable to afford Tatkal tickets immediately and reached Chennai on Wednesday night.

Shy but thrilled, Kajal said she was waiting to go back home especially to see her two elder brothers, whom she had missed dearly.