BHUBANESWAR: A poor labourer couple approached Khandagiri Police on Wednesday and urged them to ask the officials of a shelter home to hand them over their two children, who were staying there since September 13.Samar Kumar Tripathy and his wife Rina, who work as labourers, stay at Damana and have a 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.
On September 13, the couple left for work like any other day leaving behind their two children at home. Later, the children ventured out of their home in search of food.An auto-rickshaw driver saw the children weeping near Damana and took them with him to Baramunda bus stand. The auto-drivers at the bus stand immediately handed over the kids to Khandagiri police.Unable to ascertain the family details of the children, Khandagiri police handed over the kids to a shelter home in Kolothia.
On returning home from work and not finding their children, the parents reached Khandagiri police station, who informed the couple that their kids were safe and in a shelter home. When the couple visited the shelter home, the officials asked them to come later. The couple alleged that even after they visited the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) office, they were not able to get the custody of their children.
“The officials realised on the first day itself that we are the parents of the two kids. They asked me to get my Aadhaar Card for taking the children back. Despite having the Aadhaar card, we could not get the custody of our children,” Rina said.
The city cops stepped in on Wednesday and asked the shelter home officials to immediately handover the two children to their parents. “The two kids were handed over to their parents in the evening,” Khandagiri police said.