Hyderabad: Thanks to social media, a boy who left home about eight years ago was traced to a village in Punjab by his family.
Rachakonda cyber crime police brought the boy Dinesh Jena, and reunited him with his family at Kushaiguda in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Dinesh, a resident of Navodayanagar in Moula Ali under Kushaiguda police station, left home after a petty quarrel with his elder brother Deepak.
He was studying in Class VIII at a private school at that time and Deepak was in Class X. One day Dinesh took Rs 2,000 from his house and left without informing anybody.
His parents A.B.S. Salam and Susanna searched for him in their neighbourhood and then lodged a complaint with Kushaiguda police on January 26, 2011. Police could not trace him.
In August 2018, Susanna asked Deepak to search on Facebook if he could find Dinesh’s pictures. To their surprise, they found his picture under the profile ‘Dinesh Jena Lima’. Ms Susanna went to Rachakonda cyber crime police and requested them to bring her son back.
A police team led by inspector D. Jalendar Reddy traced Dinesh’s location to Rankala near Amritsar in Punjab, went there and brought him back to the city. Addressing the media at his office, Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, “When police reached Rankala and met Dinesh, he said that he did not leave his house at the age of eight, but at the age of 13. This had created confusion. His mother had mentioned his age as eight when he went missing.”
Police asked Ms Susanna about the discrepancy, and she told them she had understated his age in the hope that police would give the complaint priority.
Speaking to this newspaper, Deepak said, “My mother was always worried about Dinesh. I was the reason for my brother to leave the house. While playing cricket, he bowled very fast at me and this led to a tiff between us. He was upset and left the home.”
Dinesh stayed for two days in a lodge with an unidentified person who took him to Sukhraj Singh of Rankala village to work as a labourer. Sukhraj’s family treated him as their own son and provided him with all facilities, said Deepak.
“Sukhraj’s family kept aside some money for Dinesh. They told him this only when we went to bring him back. But my brother did not want the money. They were extremely sad, but they knew that Dinesh would go home someday,” said Deepak.
In 2015, Dinesh returned to the city to meet his family. He went to the colony where his family stayed but was not sure how to approach his parents. “We have been waiting for him for a long time and did not move from the house, expecting that he would return to the same house. This is the happiest moment for our family,” said Deepak.
Mr Sukhraj’s family has called Dinesh at least 20 times the last two days. “They (Sukhraj’s family) wanted to see Dinesh and they made video calls on WhatsApp. They were treating him like their elder son,” said Deepak. The Sukhrajs couple have two children. Dinesh was aspiring to go to Dubai, and did a spoken English course for two months in Amritsar.
He bought a bike worth Rs 1 lakh with the money he earned by selling milk from a buffalo which Mr Sukhraj had given him. “I am very happy to be with my parents. I left home after a fight with my brother, but now I do not want to go back. I will go to Punjab to meet Sukhraj as took care of me for a long time,” said Dinesh.
