For more than four agonising months, a family in Kishanganj lived in a state of desperate uncertainty, not knowing if their 15-year-old son, Santosh, was alive or dead. Their nightmare began with a simple train journey and a stop for food, which spiralled into a harrowing saga of abandonment, bonded labour, and a miraculous survival.
The Fateful Journey and Disappearance
The ordeal started when Santosh was travelling with his father on the Farakka Express. The train made a stop at Bahadurgarh station in Haryana, and the boy stepped off to buy food. In a tragic twist of fate, the train departed before he could return, leaving the teenager alone and stranded in an unfamiliar place. This moment marked the beginning of a prolonged period of suffering where he was forced into bonded labour and endured significant physical trauma.
"My mother stopped eating for those one-and-a-half months as my brother was lost," revealed Jitendra, Santosh's elder brother. He added that the family's primary concern was his survival. "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 Relentless Police Investigation
The breakthrough finally arrived on December 30, when the Bahadurgarh Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested Anil Kumar, the man accused of exploiting the boy. This followed an intensive investigation led by Inspector Satya Prakash, which covered a massive 200-kilometre radius across multiple states.
The probe spanned districts in Haryana including Kaithal, Jind, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Panipat, Nuh, and Palwal. Teams also searched areas of Delhi like Narela, Nangloi, and Shahdara, as well as Uttar Pradesh towns such as Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, and Baghpat.
Inspector Prakash stated that the case demanded "relentless attention and meticulous tracing" of the boy's fragmented memories. The investigation hinged on every detail Santosh could recall. Police coordinated with education departments across Delhi-NCR to trace students named Riya and Siya, who had a father named Anil. However, the definitive clue came from tracking the banks of the Yamuna river across three states. Santosh finally recognised the area near the ISBT in north Delhi towards the end of November.
Trauma, Escape, and Critical Clues
The sequence of events after Santosh's disappearance was pieced together by authorities. Locals first found the injured boy in Badauli on July 27 and took him to a hospital in Palwal for treatment for his amputated hand. He was later moved to a medical college in Nuh but, still in shock, escaped on the night of July 28. Fortunately, two teachers found and rescued him the following day.
Santosh's detailed recollections proved pivotal in cracking the case. His memory of the layout of a dairy, a blue tractor, and the specific fodder-cutting machine that caused his injury led police directly to the accused. "Every detail recollected by the traumatised teen matched the scene perfectly," Inspector Prakash confirmed. These clues identified Anil Kumar in Motipur village, Greater Noida.
In his police statement, Anil admitted to keeping the boy for labour at his dairy. When the devastating accident occurred, he claimed he was "too terrified to take him to an official hospital" and chose to abandon him instead, leaving some money in his pocket.
Healing and Hope for Justice
Santosh is now back home in Kishanganj, where he is gradually resuming his studies. His father, Bhimlal Rishidev, shared that the boy's hand has healed after undergoing three operations. The family's focus is now on supporting his emotional recovery from the prolonged trauma.
For the family, the arrest brings a sense of closure. "Justice has finally been served," said a relieved Jitendra. The case stands as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities faced by children and the critical importance of persistent investigative work in solving complex missing persons cases.
