A 14-year-old boy, who had run away from his home in Outer Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy in August last year has been traced in Jammu by Delhi Police Crime Branch. The sleuths have managed to locate him after he had given missed calls to his father from the mobile phone of a person in Jammu. The body has been rescued.
A senior Crime Branch official told The Pioneer that the boy ran away from the house on August 25 last year after a heated argument with his father, who runs furniture business. “The boy took a bus to Katra near Jammu. His father lodged a missing report at Shahbad Dairy police station on August 25 last year. After the case remained unsolved even one year after the registration of missing FIR, it was transferred to the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on August 26 this year,” said the police official.
“The boy had reached Katra and came in touch with some pilgrims going to Jammu. Among the group was a man identified as Kailash. Kailash took the boy and kept him in his house. The boy started disliking the place and began to get a bit homesick,” said the official.
“One day he got hold of Kailash’s phone and dropped sporadic missed calls on his father’s number. The boy’s father had seen the missed calls but did not bother to call back to it. As part of the investigation, when we questioned the boy’s father, he mentioned that he had received missed calls from unknown number. This was the only clue we had. Call Detail Records (CDR) of that phone number and through technical surveillance the location of the boy was established,” said the official.
A team was formed and sent to Jammu where the boy was finally traced. “We found the boy on September 8 but Kailash was absconding by the time we reached his house,” said the official.
The official further said that the boy could not muster up the courage to go back on his own to Delhi so he used to drop missed calls at times when Kailash was not around, with the hope that his father would call back and come for him.
“We had even called the number but after we asked about the whereabouts of the boy, Kailash switched off his phone” said the official. Kailash is yet to be traced and his whereabouts are being ascertained.
When asked whether the boy was being radicalised or not, police said they did not yet find any such links in this case. However, police claimed that a strict watch will be kept on him. Further probe are on to find out why Kailash did not try to send the teenager back to home.