A 12-year-old Anup Thakur alias Chottu, a native of Narkotiaganj of Bihar, was missing from home for seven long years. With the efforts of some local of Ambaguda village of Koraput district, Chhottu returned home on Saturday.
Chhottu revealed that after fleeing home, he boarded a train for fun but after several hours of journey he reached Vishakhapatnam.
As Chhottu was new to the area so he stayed in the platform for two days and started living on the food that was thrown by others. In the meantime, some labourers from Odisha found him and fed him. Chhottu requested them to take him with them as he was unable to locate his hometown.
In Bihar, Chhottu’s family tried a lot but could not find him. So they assumed Chhottu must have got killed or trapped by any child trafficking racket.
In Odisha the kid got a new family who gave him shelter and recognition too. It was Ajay Saha of Ambaguda BJ-2 village and his family who kept Chhottu as his adopted son. As Chhottu didn’t remember his name too, so the family gave him the name ‘Chhottu’.
From that day Chhottu started living with Saha’s family as a member. He was illiterate; so he showed interest in auto-rickshaw driving. Ajay Saha brought him a new auto-rickshaw.
A man from Ambaguda Kamalesh Sarkar helped him find his family. Kamalesh searched Chhottu’s village in internet and found his family details from Election Commission’s list. Then Kamalesh contacted with Bihar police and asked for help to verify the kid’s village and their family’s existence.
Bihar police informed the parents and sent them to Odisha after getting confirmation from Odisha Police. Chhottu’s father Rukhi Thakur and uncle Mohan Thakur reached Koraput and then to Ambaguda at Ajay Saha’s village.
The kid was handed over to the family in presence of police and finally Chhottu got his lost family.