For 45 days, six-year-old Aryan never let go of his four-year-old sister Amritha’s hand.  It was this act of love that eventually helped the Kerala police trace the two children and bring them back to the state.

In the last week of January, the two children were abandoned on a Mumbai-bound train by a relative following their mother’s death in Kannur district. They were brought back to Kerala on Sunday by a police team headed by Sub Inspector Anshad of Iritty in Kannur.

How the ordeal began

Until 2015 the children lived in Tumakuru in Karnataka with their parents. Their father Ravi was, however, allegedly killed by their uncle (mother’s younger sister’s husband) Manjunatha in 2015.

Later Manjunatha and the children’s mother Shobha eloped in Iritty and started living together with the kids. Police said that the couple had frequent fights over Manjunatha wanting to return to his wife in Tumaakuru.

Tragedy then struck on January 22 this year. During one of their fights, Manjunatha allegedly strangled Shobha, who fell unconscious. “He thought she was dead, so he threw her into a well. She was not actually dead, but she died due to drowning after being thrown into the well. Initially everyone thought it was a suicide. But police continued to investigate the case,” Iritty station house officer Sudheer told The News Minute.

Manjunatha then took the children to Bengaluru on January 29, where he abandoned them on a Mumbai-bound train. He then returned to Iritty.

During the course of the police investigation, they discovered that Manjunatha had allegedly murdered Shobha.  It was then during the questioning that he revealed that he had abandoned the children on the train to Mumbai.

The rescue

“We shared the children’s photographs with the Mumbai police and contacted them through Childline. When an officer from Ernakulam visited Mumbai recently for some other case, a Mumbai police officer informed him that the children, who resembled those in the photograph, were taken to the Child Welfare Committee. The Mumbai officer also said the children had been found on a train,” Sudheer said.

Last week, a police team from Kerala was sent to locate the siblings.  

“We were not sure whether the information was correct and had no idea how to find them in a city like Mumbai. But surprisingly it was them. The elder brother never let go of his little sister’s hands. If they had gotten separated in Mumbai, it would have been a big task for the police to find them. They stayed together on the train all through the two-day journey. Later, some policemen found them in Mumbai and handed them over to CWC there,” Sub Inspector Anshad, who headed the team to Mumbai, said.

The officer said that the children were happy to return to Kerala. He said that the siblings remained silent all through their return journey. “When we asked something, they cried, but otherwise they were quiet and did not speak much,” he said.

Now the children are under the custody of Kannur Childline. Their father’s sister is reportedly willing to take care of the children.

“They have to submit some documents to take the children with them, so the documentation is getting ready. We will also make sure that the children are not abandoned again, as they will not be able to go through the trauma once again,” Sudheer said.