A 19-year-old speech and hearing impaired youth from Yelahanka who went missing six years ago was reunited with his mother in Nagpur with the help of the local Aadhaar Seva Kendra and officials at the children’s home where he was staying all these years. Bharath Kumar B was reported missing in March 2016 when he was barely 13 years.

On Friday, his mother Parvathamma, along with the Yelahanka police, travelled to Nagpur to bring him back. “It was an emotional reunion for the mother and son. Both Bharath and Parvathamma were crying inconsolably,” said a police officer.

According to the police, Bharath often accompanied his mother to the Raithara Santhe, the farmer’s market near Yelahanka, where she would sell vegetables regularly. On that fateful day in March 2016, there was a heavy rush at the market and the boy was separated from his mother. While his family was frantically searching for him and filed a missing person’s complaint with the Yelahanka police, the boy somehow landed up in Nagpur. Ten months later the Railway Police at a station in Nagpur found him wandering alone. 

They took him to the government’s children home where he has been living since then. Due to his speech impairment and his age he was not able to communicate popularly. “Recently, an officer at the children’s home in Nagpur took Bharath and other residents to a local seva kendra to get their Aadhaar registration done. To his surprise the boy’s biometrics details were rejected. Personnel at the seva kendra probed into it, and found that he had already been enrolled,” said the police officer. With his family’s details available, it was easy to contact his mother.