The Hindu : New Delhi News : Escaped in Lucknow, caught in Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Escaped in Lucknow, caught in Delhi

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 19. Sixteen of the 33 children who had escaped from an observation home in Lucknow on February 17 were apprehended by the Delhi railway police soon after they alighted at Old Delhi railway station late on Saturday night. They had come to the Capital hoping to take shelter in some temple where they could have free food.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railway), R.K. Jha, said policemen deployed at the Old Delhi railway station noticed a group of boys who had alighted from the Bareilly Express around 11-15 p.m. "Our men had been briefed earlier about the missing boys. When they noticed many boys -- all of them were without slippers and were wearing blue shirts -- alighting from the train, they stopped them for questioning," said Mr. Jha. The boys then revealed that they had indeed escaped from the observation home.

Recounting the sequence of events, the boys told the police that they had escaped from the centre, located at Kakori in Lucknow, around 5 p.m on February 17. They reached Kakori railway station from where they took the first available train and reached Malihabad, a township near Lucknow.

They then took another train at Malihabad to reach Bareilly and from there they boarded Bareilly Express to reach the Capital last night. The Station House Officer (Old Delhi railway station), Narender Chawla, said the boys had come to the Capital because somebody had told them that there were many temples in the Capital where they could get free food. "They had planned to come to Delhi even before they had escaped from the centre," said Mr. Chawla. The officer added that the boys knew about Hanuman Mandir where they could eat "as much as they wanted". The police said the boys did not have any idea of what was to be done after they got shelter in the temple and they could well have landed in the hands of anti-social elements.

The boys also told the police that the staff at the centre ill-treated them and did not give them enough food to eat. "They also told us that they were not allowed to watch television," said the SHO. He added that the group, which was led by one of the elder juveniles, did not have any idea about 17 others. After escaping, these boys, aged between 10 and 15, had simply been following their leader's directions.

Later in the day, the boys were produced in the Juvenile Justice Court that directed the police to take them to Delhi Government's observation home for children. The authorities in Lucknow have been informed about the development and they were expected to arrive by Sunday evening.

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