Missing boy found spending quality time with father

A three-year-old boy, who went missing from a Kurla hotel on Monday night, was found safe and sound at his father’s home, also in Kurla, on Tuesday afternoon.

Sudha Singh, 26, a resident of Panvel, came to the city with her two children — Shiv Kumar Singh, 3, and his 18-month-old sister — and her father, Rangari Goswami, 55. They reached Kurla around 6pm, and dropped Rangari at their relatives’ place in Kurla (West). After that, Sudha, her two children, and a friend went to dine at a hotel on New Mills Compound Road, Kurla (West), around 8.30pm.

Sudha was busy eating and talking to her friend. Her daughter was sitting beside her while Shiv Kumar was playing in the hotel premises. But after finishing dinner, Sudha found that her son had gone missing.

She, her friend and the hotel employees searched the hotel and its neighbouring areas, but Shiv Kumar was not found. Finally, around 10pm, Sudha lodged a missing person complaint at the Kurla police station, giving a detailed description of her son.

The police fanned out looking for the boy at Kurla railway station, bus terminus, autorickshaw and taxi stands. “We questioned the hotel owner and his employees about the boy, but nothing came of it,” senior inspector Vijay Bagve of the Kurla police station said.

The cops checked with Sudha’s relatives, but Shiv Kumar was not with any of them. Finally, around noon on Tuesday, the police knocked on the door of Sudha’s estranged husband, Mewalal Nishad, who lived at Indira Nagar, Kurla (West). There they found Shiv Kumar safe and sound. The boy was later handed over to Sudha.

Interrogations revealed that Nishad was the father of Sudha’s children. He went to the hotel and took Shiv Kumar home without informing Sudha because he wanted to spend a day with his son. The couple separated a few months ago, Bagve said.