Telangana Police\'s Darpan software helps unite missing boy with family after 5 years
Hyderabad: A family in Uttar Pradesh's Handia was reunited with their lost child on Friday, thanks to the Telangana Police's special facial recognition software called 'Darpan'. The 13-year-old boy went missing 5 years ago, in July 2015, and was traced lodged in a Child Welfare Centre in Assam's Goalpara.
The Telangana Police upon identifying the child informed the SHO of Handia police station, who then informed the parents of the missing child. They immediately rushed to the child welfare center at Goalpara in Assam and identified him.
Additional DGP (Women Safety) Swati Lakra, Telangana Police told Deccan Chronicle that the boy, identified as Som Soni, was missing from his home since July 14, 2015. A case of a missing person was registered in the police station. A few days later, on July 23, the boy was spotted roaming around by the Goalpara police who admitted him into a local child welfare center.
Explaining the role of the software in bringing back the child, ADGP Lakra said, "We collect photographs of missing children, from FIRs registered across the country and from CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems), and also from track the child portal (https://trackthemissingchild.gov.in/trackchild/index.php), we get photographs of traced children from the track the child portal, from the child care institutions across the country, and the women and child welfare department. The software runs and matches the missing and traced children. The specialty of this software is that even if the child is traced 50 years later, the matrix of the face matches it to the photograph in the system.”
She also said that the Telangana Police is trying to get as much data as possible now so that as more missing children across India can be traced and brought back to their families.
