On Monday,Azad Hussain,a scrap dealer from Gurgaon was the hero who helped unite a 12-year-old boy with his family,two years after he went missing. On Wednesday,the issue took a turn with the boy stating before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) panel and the magistrate that the scrap dealer used to beat him up and also made him work as a rag picker. The CWC then directed the police to take action on the boys statement as per law. On May 1,two years ago,the boy then 10 years old had got on to a JCB parked near his home Savitri Nagar and had ended up in Ghoda Chowk,Gurgaon,where Azad Hussain found him and,according to Hussain,raised him as his own child. Two days ago,however,the child uttered the words Chirag Dilli and it turned out to be the password to reach his family. Hussain,who said he had been searching for the boys parents for the last two years,then came to Chirag Dilli,located his father Iqbal,a stone cutter,and handed the child over to him. I was working at Sainik Farms and my son was playing outside, said Iqbal. The boy spotted a JCB and climbed onto it. The driver of the vehicle drove off and dropped the child off somewhere in Mehrauli. Police said the child kept walking till he hitched a ride on a bus till Ghoda Chowk in Gurgaon. The boy told us a man came to him,asked him his name and took him home, a police officer said. Hussain,who is unmarried and lives with his three sisters,said,When I asked the child who he was and where he lived,all he said was that his house was near a nallah. I couldnt leave him alone and took him home. Meanwhile,Iqbal and his family approached police after which a missing childs complaint was registered. Several advertisements were published in newspapers but in vain. The day after he found him,Hussain claimed that he took the child to the Sector 40 police station in Gurgaon. They told me that if I left the child,he would be sent to an orphanage and the chances of locating the childs parents would be slim. They told me that I should try looking for his parents on my own, said Hussain. However,police have denied this claim and said there was no record of any such child being brought to them. So,for the next two years,Azad said he took care of the child and kept searching for the childs parents. On Sunday,the boy uttered the words Chirag Dilli. I knew he had remembered something. I thought I should try just one last time, said Azad. On Monday,I visited Chirag Dilli area,but couldnt find anything. I was heading back home when I decided to get my helmet repaired, Azad said. Azad told a shopkeeper there about the child. The shopkeeper told me speak to a pakora wallah in the area. It was the pakora wallah who told me that a child had gone missing some time back and pointed out the childs house. We reached the house and his father recognised him,said Azad. The Malviya Nagar SHO was immediately informed and the child then handed over to his family. Iqbal said,Now,I dont let him out of my son even for a minute. His brothers and sister follow him everywhere. Allah has answered my prayers.
