Kid reunited with family in 30 minutes

CHENNAI: Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Cameras used for keeping tabs on the movement of strangers, came in handy for the Railway Protection Force to reunite a missing girl with her parents at Mambalam railway station in hardly 30 minutes on Monday.According to sources, Mambalam RPF official Pradeesh stumbled upon a four-year-old girl, who was found crying on the foot overbridge at the railway station while monitoring the CCTV, as part of the intensified security measures in view of the Independence Day at around 1.30pm. Immediately, the duty officer Immanuel Kingston was assigned to rescue the girl and bring to the Station Master’s office.“When we offered her some chocolates and biscuits, she threw it away. Besides, the little girl began to cry,” an officer said. “However, after pacifying her, she revealed her name as Thaslin apart from her parent’s names,” he added.Following the instructions of the Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Chennai Division, S R Gandhi, the RPF officials alerted all the station masters between Chennai Beach and Tambaram. In turn, the station masters started making announcements through the public address system from time to time about the rescued child. Also, the information was passed on to the control room of the city police.Even as the announcement was going live at the Mambalam railway station, a panic-stricken couple accompanied by two children entered the station master’s room at 2.00pm. With tears rolling down his cheeks, the man informed the RPF that he was Hussain, the father of the child.Narrating the ordeal that he faced in tracing the child, Hussain claimed that he had realised that the girl was missing only after the train reached Saidapet Railway Station.Instead of boarding a Beach-bound train, he entered a train in the opposite direction, RPF Sub Inspector, S Maharajan said.“Thereafter, Hussain took an auto-rickshaw to T Nagar, though the search for his daughter went in vain.He then headed straight for Kodambakkam seeking the assistance of the Station Master there. When he came to know that a missing child was found at Mambalam, he rushed here,” the SI stated.Finally, the lucky Thaslin left the railway station with her happy parents.