New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI): A tweet with a picture of three vulnerable kids huddled together on the busy New Delhi Railway Station galvanised police and a voluntary organisation to rescue the children, apparently abandoned by their family.
Prompt action on a tweet by DCP North Madhur Verma, aided by a team of NGO Uday Foundation, helped reunite these children with their family, which has apparently abandoned them. Police said role of the father is under probe.
It all started late last night when the three children - Rumana (7), Raja (5) and Sanya (4) - were spotted near platform number 16 where they sat alone, tired and asleep, making them vulnerable to anti-social elements.
A journalist Abhishek Shukla who was at the station to see off his relatives saw them huddled together. He clicked a picture and tweeted it through account @abhishek1122 with their location pleading for any help possible.
"Can someone help these helpless kids at New Delhi Railway Station near platform 16 entrance," it said.
Soon after tweeting, Children Helpline 1098 was approached and all the details were shared.
The official assured that a team will reach and the person may leave the station. While all this was happening, the children probably got scared with growing crowd and quietly moved to another location in the station.
Meanwhile, the tweet with picture went viral with senior journalists, voluntary organisations and a prompt Delhi Police DCP Madhur Verma swinging into action.
Verma took the last known location and sent him team. The kids had moved away by that time. It had taken nearly an hour of frantic efforts by the team of police and Uday Foundation to search the children, who had quietly moved from platform No. 16 to platform No. one on the other end of the station.
The children were scared, hungry and tired. It was after a quick bite that they felt comfortable and safe in the police protection. They narrated their story that they lived in Nabi Karim area. It was their father who had brought them to the station and abandoned there.
He had asked them to stay at the station till their mother comes to locate them. After being reassured, the children guided the police team to their house in the Nabi Karim area where their mother, 37-year-old Tabussum, was sleeping in a one-room accommodation in a dingy street.
When the police team asked her how can she be asleep with the kids missing, she said, "Their father often takes them along. I returned from work. I was too tired so thought I will look for them in the morning. It was a mistake that I did not approach police."
Tabassum has seven kids and does not enjoy very good relations with her husband who reportedly lives in Kanpur. She claimed that he sometimes takes these children with him and then brings them back without intimating her.
"Rahnuma (7), Raja (5), Sania (4) (were) today morning safely handed over to mother Ms Tabassum R/O Nabi Karim Old Delhi. Are Happy!(sic)," Verma tweeted, bring an end to three hour search and rescue operation which was triggered by a tweet!