Loudspeakers help cop reunite minor boy with parents in Vakola

Being the first day of the much-awaited Ganeshotsav festival, the streets were crowded and there were no signs of the boy’s parents

Mumbai: The use of loudspeakers in religious places may be a raging political issue but it helped the police reunite a five-year-old boy with his parents in Vakola on Thursday. According to the Vakola police, head constable Ashfaq Kazi, in charge of the Golibaar beat in Vakola, was patrolling on his police motorcycle when he saw the boy sitting on the pavement and crying.

Ashfaq Kazi

Being the first day of the much-awaited Ganeshotsav festival, the streets were crowded and there were no signs of the boy’s parents. “I tried asking him for details about his family and address but the boy was scared and could not tell me anything. I got biscuits and chocolates for him and once he calmed down, I put him on my motorcycle and set off in search of his parents,” Kazi told Hindustan Times.

Kazi and the boy scoured the entire Golibaar area but to no avail. Finally, the head constable, who has been with the Vakola police for a year now, drew upon his experience and hit upon an idea. “We went to several temples and mosques in the area and requested them to announce on their loudspeakers that the boy had been found and that his parents should contact the police immediately,” Kazi said.

Even as the announcements were being made, Kazi kept riding around with the boy throughout his jurisdiction and coordinating with other beat constables. Finally, about two-and-a-half hours later, he was informed that the boy’s parents had reached the police station, following which he rushed there.

After a tearful reunion, the boy’s mother told the police that they hail from Punjab and had come to stay with their relatives in Nirmal Nagar. She said that they had just stepped out when the boy got separated from them.

“The boy had come to love the bike so much that he kept demanding to get back on it even as his mother was trying to take him away,” an amused Kazi recalled.