Bonded teen's tormentor held after 200km manhunt
Patna: For over four months, the family of 15-year-old Santosh from Kishanganj lived in agonising uncertainty, desperate to know if their son was alive. The nightmare began when the boy, travelling with his father on the Farakka Express, stepped off the train at Bahadurgarh station in Haryana to buy food and the train departed, leaving him stranded. That moment was the start of a harrowing ordeal that would see the boy forced into bonded labour, suffer physical trauma and survive against the odds.
“My mother stopped eating for those one-and-a-half months as my brother was lost,” said Jitendra, Santosh’s elder brother. “I had faith that he would survive and come back to us, no matter where he was. More than finding the accused, it was important for us to know he was alive.”
The breakthrough came on Dec 30 when the Bahadurgarh GRP arrested Anil Kumar, the man accused of exploiting the boy, following an intensive investigation covering a 200-km radius. The probe covered Kaithal, Jind, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Panipat, Nuh and Palwal in Haryana; areas of Delhi including Narela, Nangloi and Shahdara and Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Aligarh and Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh. Inspector Satya Prakash, who led the operation, said the case demanded “relentless attention and meticulous tracing” of the boy’s movements.
The investigation, Prakash said, drew on every detail Santosh could recall. “We coordinated with education departments across Delhi-NCR to trace students named Riya and Siya with a father named Anil, but the definitive breakthrough came by tracking the banks of the Yamuna river across three states. The boy finally recognised the area near the ISBT in north Delhi towards the end of Nov,” he said.
Locals first found the boy in Badauli on July 27, taking him to a hospital in Palwal to treat his amputated hand. He was then moved to a medical college in Nuh, but escaped in shock on the night of July 28. Two teachers eventually rescued him the following day. The boy’s recollection of the dairy’s layout, a blue tractor, and the fodder-cutting machine that had caused the injury proved pivotal in identifying Anil Kumar in Motipur village, Greater Noida. “Every detail recollected by the traumatised teen matched the scene perfectly,” Prakash said.
In his statement to police, Anil admitted to keeping the boy for labour at his dairy. When the accident occurred, he said he was “too terrified to take him to an official hospital” and abandoned him instead, leaving money in his pocket.
Santosh is now home in Kishanganj, gradually resuming his studies. His father, Bhimlal Rishidev, said the boy’s hand had healed after three operations, and the family is focused on helping him recover emotionally. “Justice has finally been served,” Jitendra said.
“My mother stopped eating for those one-and-a-half months as my brother was lost,” said Jitendra, Santosh’s elder brother. “I had faith that he would survive and come back to us, no matter where he was. More than finding the accused, it was important for us to know he was alive.”
The breakthrough came on Dec 30 when the Bahadurgarh GRP arrested Anil Kumar, the man accused of exploiting the boy, following an intensive investigation covering a 200-km radius. The probe covered Kaithal, Jind, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Panipat, Nuh and Palwal in Haryana; areas of Delhi including Narela, Nangloi and Shahdara and Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Aligarh and Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh. Inspector Satya Prakash, who led the operation, said the case demanded “relentless attention and meticulous tracing” of the boy’s movements.
The investigation, Prakash said, drew on every detail Santosh could recall. “We coordinated with education departments across Delhi-NCR to trace students named Riya and Siya with a father named Anil, but the definitive breakthrough came by tracking the banks of the Yamuna river across three states. The boy finally recognised the area near the ISBT in north Delhi towards the end of Nov,” he said.
Locals first found the boy in Badauli on July 27, taking him to a hospital in Palwal to treat his amputated hand. He was then moved to a medical college in Nuh, but escaped in shock on the night of July 28. Two teachers eventually rescued him the following day. The boy’s recollection of the dairy’s layout, a blue tractor, and the fodder-cutting machine that had caused the injury proved pivotal in identifying Anil Kumar in Motipur village, Greater Noida. “Every detail recollected by the traumatised teen matched the scene perfectly,” Prakash said.
In his statement to police, Anil admitted to keeping the boy for labour at his dairy. When the accident occurred, he said he was “too terrified to take him to an official hospital” and abandoned him instead, leaving money in his pocket.
Santosh is now home in Kishanganj, gradually resuming his studies. His father, Bhimlal Rishidev, said the boy’s hand had healed after three operations, and the family is focused on helping him recover emotionally. “Justice has finally been served,” Jitendra said.
Next Story