Lost boy’s saviour in trouble with child panel

NEW DELHI/GURGAON: A day after TOI reported the story of a Gurgaon scrap dealer who restored an eight-yearold boy to his parents after a two-year search, the ‘saviour’ has landed in trouble, with the Child Welfare Committee seeking an explanation from him for not informing the local police about the boy.
The CWC of Lajpat Nagar has also asked the investigating officer to find out if the scrap dealer, Azad Hussain, had been beating the boy and whether he was forced to work as a rag-picker without salary.“Statement of the child recorded under section 164 of the CrPC stated that he was asked to work without salary. Azad used to beat him… IO should take action as per law and submit action taken report in the next date of hearing,’’ stated the CWC order of which TOI has a copy.
Azad claims he did take the boy to the police. “I took him to the Sector 40 police station the day I found him, but the cops only registered a complaint and asked me to take him home. Unfortunately , I don’t have a copy of the complaint. The cops said they cannot keep the boy and insisted that I could take care of him better,” he said.
The scrap dealer said he feared CWC would level charges against him since the Delhi Police had told him that he would be questioned by the committee members in the coming days. “I strongly felt it was my responsibility to reunite the boy with his family and that is the reason I brought him home,” says Azad, the eldest of six children living in a makeshift tin shed.
Gurgaon police say they are checking records to seeif a complaint was registered about the boy. Azad also claimed the boy habitually ran away from home. “In the first two months with us, he behaved well since almost every day I took him around town to locate his family . But later he started running away eight to 10 times a month. Every time, we would search for him and bring him back. Sometimes the cops themselves brought him back to us. I could have abandoned the boy but we all had got attached to him and are missing him a lot,” says the scrap dealer.
Malviya Nagar police said they would look at the boy’s statement. “We will register a case in accordance with the juvenile laws,’’ said an officer. He added that the child had not spoken to them about the family troubling him during his stay.
The child’s father, Iqbal Ahmed, said his family was unaware of the twist in the case. “We are happy to get him back. Why should we bother him with such questions? He has not informed us of any past troubles. We do not want to lodge any case,” said Iqbal.
The boy, then six years old, was playing near his home in Malviya Nagar when he hopped onto an earthmover in May 2010. He got off the vehicle after sometime but could not make his way back. He then boarded a bus to Gurgaon where he was found crying by Azad.
“Azad took good care of the boy. He kept looking for his parents . As the boy had disclosed that his home was close to a drain, the man carried out doorto-door searches at several places during the past two years hoping to trace the boy’s family. He also got announcements made at mosques,” said a police officer at Malviya Nagar.
Azad’s family claims they tried to educate the boy and got him admitted in a neighbourhood government school. “But he used to run away. He used to call me ammi and I brought him up like my own son. Despite our penury we ensured he got everything .” said Munni, Azad’s mother.