Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Police succeeded in tracing two siblings, who had run away from home due to constant arguments between their parents, after four and a half months.
The search operation was conducted under 'Operation Muskan'. The police handed over both siblings to their parents on Wednesday.
According to details, a couple lives on a farm in a village in Gangapur tehsil. The couple’s elder son, 16-year-old Mahesh (name changed), is studying in the 10th standard at a school in a nearby village, while the other son, 13-year-old Vishal (name changed), studies in the seventh standard at another school.
The boys did not return home from school on the evening of September 12. Their parents lodged a missing person's complaint at the Gangapur police station on September 13.
While searching for the children, the family found a note on the table at home that read, "Don't search for us, we will not return."
Despite searching, the Gangapur police could not find the children. While conducting a parallel investigation into the case, Assistant Police Inspector of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) Sarla Gadekar received information from an informer that the younger boy was in Ahilyanagar.
Acting on a tip-off, the team of AHTU went to Dahigaon in Ahilyanagar district and took the boy into custody. Upon questioning, he revealed that his elder brother was in Mumbai. Based on this, the team also traced and apprehended the other boy from Machhi Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai, on Wednesday.
When the police questioned both children, they said that there were constant arguments between their parents. They had run away from home because they were fed up with this trouble. The team, with the help of Gangapur police, handed over both children to their parents.
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Search conducted under 'Operation Muskan'
Under the guidance of Superintendent of Police Dr Vinaykumar Rathod, the Rural Police Force of the district is conducting a special campaign called 'Operation Muskan-14' from January 20 to February 20 to search for missing and abducted children and individuals.
A team of AHTU located two siblings. The team comprises API Sarla Gadekar, PSI Narwade, Vinod Bhalerao, PSI of Gangapur Police Station Audumbar Mhaske, and constables Dilip Salve, Kapil Bankar, Irshad Pathan, Sapna Charande, Manisha Salve and Bhagyashree Chavan.