More than four years after they went missing from their home in Satna, the CBI has traced two children — after over a year of meticulous probe — from Kolkata where they were found to be under the care of an NGO.
Both the traced children, who went missing since April, 2010, are boys aged 11 and 8 years and are now studying in Standard IV and II respectively. The two kids along with their elder sister had fled home from Satna in Madhya Pradesh due to the alleged ill-treatment meted out to them by their father.
The CBI took up the probe at the behest of Madhya Pradesh High Court and registered a case on March 8 last year and declared a cash reward of Rs50,000 to anybody giving a clue about the children. Interestingly, the court’s direction had come on a petition of the father of the children — a 15 year-old-girl and two boys. They were missing since April 2, 2010.
As part of its professional probe, the agency contacted various States and certain shelter homes, children homes, child help lines, NGOs, Central Adoption Authority of India, NCRB, SCRBs and even State mortuaries to collect information about the missing children.
“CBI also examined 178 persons which included suspects mentioned by the father of the three missing children, relatives, neighbours and even police officials of Satna. lie Detection/Polygraph Test & Psychological Assessment Test of certain persons, including police officials, were also conducted,” a CBI spokesperson said.
The agency found that volunteers of the NGO had located the children at Howrah Railway station in the company of a blind and physically challenged person on May 9, 2010. “The two children were admitted to the ‘Children Home’ run by the said NGO while the girl refused to accompany them and her whereabouts are still being traced,” the CBI said.
“The two children were produced before Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Barrasat (West Bengal) and were ordered to be kept under the care of Gorakhpur-based NGO with its branch at Kolkata where the children are studying,” the agency said.