Missing Delhi boy recovered from Kashmir after 14 months

A 17-year-old Delhi boy, who left home 14 months ago fed up by his father's beatings, has been traced to the home of a Kashmiri family in Srinagar where he has been living like a family member, police said on Wednesday.

The teen left his home in east Delhi's Khazuri Khas as his father used to beat him when drunk, police said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav told IANS that the boy, whose name is withheld, left his home on May 8 last year.

"He was sitting in a park at a lonely place when a Delhi resident located him and took him to his home."

"The boy stayed at the house of the Delhi-based man for sometime. One of the relatives of the man took the boy at his native place in Kashmir where he had been staying since then like a family member. He had also adopted the religious and social lifestyle of the family."

"The boy has learnt to read the Quran and daily routine activities. He also helps the Kashmiri family in their small grocery business and was living there happily," the officer said.

The officer said the investigating team recovered the boy from Dalal Mohalla in Srinagar on July 6 after tracking the IP (Internet Protocol) address of his Facebook account.

"The boy was accessing his Facebook account and used to chat with his elder brother. After technical analysis of the different IP addresses of his Facebook account, we managed to trace his location in Dalal Mohalla in Srinagar. We conducted a raid and recovered the boy," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav said.

The officer said: "We found different IP addresses of the Facebook account of the boy as he was using it from different mobile numbers."

"The call details and subscriber application forms of these mobile numbers were sought from concerned mobile operators and we finally got the exact location of the boy," the officer said.

"The missing boy has been handed over to his parents. During interrogation, the boy informed us that he had left his house because his father used to drink and beat him."

--IANS

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