Parents curb playtime, Bengaluru teen flees home for ‘new life’ in Delhi

After hours of counselling, he finally told investigators that he was from Bengaluru and had fled home on the evening of November 30.

Tired of his parents pressuring him to study and not allowing him to play, a 15-year-old boy from Bengaluru allegedly fled to Delhi “to start a new life”, police said on Friday, adding that he was found by government officials living in Lodhi Colony who alerted Delhi Police, who then traced his family.

The police said the boy, from Bengaluru, sounded educated and was proficient in both English and Hindi. (PTI)

A senior police officer said that on Wednesday evening, they received a call from a resident of Pragati Vihar in Lodhi Colony who reported that a boy, who appeared to be guardianless, had come to the house claiming he was from Chennai.

When police reached the house and met the boy, he repeated that he was from Chennai and said both his parents were dead. “He got off a train at Nizamuddin railway station and reached Lodhi Colony, where he met a few children playing in a park. He started playing with them, and they later took him home — to the shock of their parents, who immediately alerted police,” the officer said.

The boy was brought to Lodhi Colony police station, where he was questioned at length. Initially, he continued to give false details about himself. “The boy sounded educated and was proficient in both English and Hindi. He said his parents died when he was young, after which he was raised by grandparents who also passed away when he was in Class 8. He claimed he then took up odd jobs to survive. His story didn’t add up because he couldn’t answer specific questions about his school or where he stayed in Chennai, which made us believe he wasn’t being honest,” the officer said.

After hours of counselling, he finally told investigators that he was from Bengaluru and had fled home on the evening of November 30.

“When we checked internal missing person reports, we found that he had been reported missing by the Bengaluru City police station and a kidnapping case had been registered the same day,” the officer said.

Investigators said the boy allegedly took his father’s phone, booked a cab to the railway station, and boarded a train to Hyderabad without a ticket. “On the way, the phone he was using was stolen and its battery had drained, so it came as switched off. Meanwhile, Bengaluru police were tracing the cab and trying to locate the boy,” the officer added.

From Hyderabad, he allegedly took another train to Delhi and reached the capital on the afternoon of December 3. “He was so fond of playing that he immediately joined children he found in a park,” the officer said.

When asked why he fled, the boy said he studies in Class 9 at a private school in Bengaluru and usually scores above 90%, but his parents do not allow him to play. “He said they pressure him to study even harder and score more. He felt restricted at home and wanted to come to Delhi to take up any job that would give him more time to play,” the officer said.

Police produced the child before the Child Welfare Committee and contacted his father. On Thursday, his father, a manager in a private company, flew to Delhi and took him back with the CWC’s permission. “We also counselled his father and told him to allow the child more time to play,” the officer said.