An eight-year-old boy, who had run away from his home in West Bengal after his mother allegedly scolded him, was reunited with his family at a town near here.
Sachin Sunil Chauhan, a student of class II, had run away from his home at a village near Vardhman town of WB's Asansol district about 10 days back, Bardoli police inspector S M Sagar told PTI over phone today.
"Sachin was scolded by his widowed mother Radha on June 29 after he lost a Rs 500 note which she had given him to buy some items from the market," Sagar said.
An irked Sachin, who had some money in his pocket that time, left home and came to Asansol railway station. He boarded an Ahmedabad-bound train and landed in Surat city.
However, his trouble grew in Surat as he could converse only in his native language Bengali.
The scared boy then got into a state transport (ST) bus and asked the conductor to give him a ticket to Asansol.
The bus conductor failed to understand his language and asked him to get down at the ST depot in Bardoli town, about 160 km from Vadodara.
The boy begged there as he had no money, said Sagar.
"We spotted him begging and brought him to the police station. Gitaben Mangalbhai, a woman assistant sub-inspector working as child welfare officer, started looking after him," he said.
"We took help from several Bengali people staying in Surat to get details about the boy's family and his native village," the police officer said.
The Bengali people contacted their friends and family members staying in Kolkata, Vardhman town and Asansol and managed to approach his mother. Some of these people went to the village and informed her about her missing son being found in Gujarat's Bardoli town, he said.
They brought Radha to Bardoli where the minor boy was reunited with her yesterday after due verification of her identification documents, Sagar said.
"I am really happy to have found him. I can breathe now," a teary-eyed Radha said as she hugged her son.
