Ab tak 846: A Haryana cop’s quest to reunite missing children continues
From a child who stepped out to look for her mother to another who ran away after being scolded at home, Haryana ASI Rajesh Kumar has reunited several missing people with their families.
8 min read
Haryana police ASI Rajesh Kumar keeps looking for new cases of missing persons to reunite them with their families. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)Lalmani, 26, teaches at a private school in Delhi’s Rohini. Growing up in two shelter homes in the national capital, she knew that the police had found her on the streets of Delhi when she was just seven. Lalmani had no hope she would ever meet her family again. That is, until she heard about Haryana Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Rajesh Kumar.
When Lalmani contacted Kumar, the only significant memory she had of her family was that her mother had lost her finger in the local rice milling machine. Lalmani was not sure if this information would be sufficient but for Kumar, who has reunited hundreds of people with their families, it was. Kumar identified the machine as one commonly used in Jharkhand, alerted his contacts in the state, and followed up on the information he received until his efforts paid off. Lalmani was reunited with her family in Jharkhand – after 16 long years.
Lalmani is just one of the 846 missing children, men and women that 42-year-old Kumar has reunited with their families in the last eight years. In December last year, Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur honoured ASI Kumar with the ‘DGP Uttam Seva Medal’ for his efforts.
“A visit to a Panchkula shelter home in 2015 inspired me to unite children with their families. It is part of my official duty too. Whenever a child or a missing person is reunited with their family, it gives hope to a lot of other such families too,” says Kumar, who is posted at the Haryana Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit in Panchkula which works under the State Crime Branch.
Lalmani (wearing glasses) reuniting with her mother and ASI Rajesh Kumar. (Source: Special Arrangement)
Kumar recalls the Lalmani case. She contacted him in September 2022. “She talked about a unique plant which is found in the hilly areas and used for the production of locally made liquor. She also said that her mother Bibvati lost the first finger of her right hand in a local rice milling machine. I sent her videos and photos of different machines to get a clue…She identified one of these and this helped me to conclude that she was from Jharkhand,” says Kumar.
“We sent all the details, including her photo, her father’s name, her description of local trees, a pond and a village well to the authorities of Jharkhand. I also sent all the details to my WhatsApp groups. From one of these groups, I was told that the details may belong to Gumla district of Jharkhand,” he adds.
“When I sent all these details to local groups in Gumla district, the head of a village called me to inform me that a girl had gone missing from their village. Her family identified the photo and in a video call, Lalmani identified her mother after finding a finger missing from her right hand,” says Kumar.
Lalmani and her mother were brought to Delhi to work as domestic help as part of a human trafficking racket. “In 2005, we came to Delhi in search of a job. I was left in a separate home. One day in 2006, I left home to meet my mother and I went missing,” recalls Lalmani, adding that she completed her schooling and nursery teacher training with the help of an NGO. “I went to my native village to meet my family but now I will continue my job in Delhi itself,” she says.
Kumar says it was in December 2015 that he began working to locate the parents of missing children. He now has a page on Facebook where information regarding missing children is put up and is a part of 10 WhatsApp groups with police officials, NGO members and officials of the Women and Child Development Department as its members.
His wife Renu, 42, who is a government school teacher, says, “Earlier, I used to complain that my husband does not spare time for domestic work. Nearly four years ago, I visited a Bal Sadan in Panchkula when my husband had gone to reunite a child with his family. It changed my perception of him. Now, I feel proud of him as even my friends appreciate his role.”
On January 15 this year, Kumar reunited Neha, 22, who had gone missing from Wardha in Maharashtra nearly 15 years ago, with her family.
Haryana Additional Director General of Police Mamta Singh says the work being done by Kumar and other members of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit is appreciable. She also highlighted how Aadhaar details have facilitated the reunion of several children with their families. “In 2024 itself, Aadhaar details helped us reunite five people with their families. Our teams go to the shelter homes and ask for their enrolment for an Aadhaar card. This out-of-the-box initiative has helped,” she adds.
One such person who was reunited with his family in October last year due to his Aadhaar details is Satbir Singh, 21. Singh went missing after a visit to a gurdwara in his native village Shambhi in Haryana’s Karnal district. He was 10.
Satbir Singh with Haryana ADGP Mamta Singh, ASI Rajesh Kumar and his family members. (Source: Special Arrangement)
In September 2024, Kumar made a routine call to a shelter home in Lucknow and asked if there was any inmate there who was from Haryana. When the officials told him that one inmate looked like a Haryanvi, he suggested they apply for his Aadhaar card and share its acknowledgement slip with him after fingerprints were recorded.
“When I visited the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) office in Chandigarh, its staffers told me that his fingerprint impressions were already taken in Shambhi village of Karnal district. But when I contacted the family, they said that their son was already with them,” says Kumar.
Kumar learnt that in 2022, the family had spotted a youth in a video clip who looked similar to their son and brought him home. “But when I arranged a video call with Satbir Singh, the family recognised him. The youth who was staying with the family for the past two years was then admitted to a shelter home in Karnal. He was named Sudhir and his Aadhaar card was also made so that his fingerprints were on record,” says Kumar.
With Kumar’s efforts in reuniting families paying off, the police department in 2022 handed him the case of Manish Kumar, who had gone missing from Yamunanagar in 2013 when he was just a 10-year-old. Manish had left his home after he was scolded.
Manish Kumar with his visually impaired mother, Babita, in Yamunanagar. ASI Rajesh Kumar is wearing a blue shirt. (Source: special arrangement)
“The family told me that Manish had an operation on his hip. I sent his photos to various WhatsApp groups specially created for lost and found children. I received a response from a Lucknow shelter home. I urged them to send a photo of his hip. When I shared this photo with his brother Rahul, he immediately recognised his brother,” says Kumar.
In an attempt to trace more missing people, Kumar says he keeps calling shelter homes. It was during one such phone call to a Child Care Institute in Shimla in 2018 that he learnt about an inmate named Pooja Sharma. She had gone missing when she was just six years old. Apart from her name and her father’s name, she remembered that a lot of cotton threads were found in front of her home.
This information led Kumar to believe that she could be from Ludhiana in Punjab or Panipat in Haryana. He investigated, and learnt about a daily diary report in Panipat’s Model Town Police Station lodged in 2007 about a missing girl. Finally, she was reunited with her family in July 2018.
“Such separation sometimes gives much more pain than losing a family member,” says Kumar, explaining why he does what he does. “So, when two separated souls meet, it gives satisfaction and peace to my soul too.”
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