VIJAYAWADA: The four-year-old Navya Sri, who went missing on Sunday from Kanaka Durga temple, was reunited with her parents on Monday morning at One Town police station. She was traced in Narasaraopet of Guntur district on Sunday night.
The parents of the girl Pydi Raju and Sridevi from Srikakulam district had come to Vijayawada to have darshan of goddess Kanaka Durga atop Indrakeeladri, said D Kaasi Viswanath, One Town circle inspector. The couple and their relatives were returning from Tirupati. While they were standing in the queue in Mallikharjuna Mahamandapam Complex, the parents noticed Navya Sri was missing. They immediately informed the temple authorities and lodged a police complaint.
Officials immediately checked the CCTV footage installed at the temple and surrounding public places. Joint City Police Commissioner (JCP), Kanthi Rana Tata, constituted eight teams and sent them to the railway station, bus stand, and other public places to look for the girl. Challa Subblakshmi, a woman from Narasaraopet town of Guntur district, and her husband found the girl crying at the temple, and took her to thier house.
“When they saw the reports about the missing child on news channels, Subbalakshmi approached the local police around 8 p.m. on Sunday and handed over the girl to them.
When we received information from Narasaraopet police that the girl was under their care, our team went there and brought the girl to Vijayawada on Monday morning to unite her with her parents,” said the JCP Kanthi Rana Tata.
Explaining the investigation process, the Joint CP said they got a clue from a CCTV footage in the temple, where a family was seen taking the child with them. By tracing them with the help of other CCTV cameras at the railway station, we came to know that the couple went to Narasaraopet. Then, we alerted all police stations,” Kanthi Rana Tata said.
After their reunion, the couple along with the daughter met City Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang in his office. “We had lost all hopes of seeing our child again. The police and press helped a lot in tracing her. We are indebted to both,” the elated mother said. No case was registered against the couple who had taken the girl to Narasaraopet.
CCTV network in Durga temple to be strengthened
Vijayawada: In the wake of the recent incident where a four-year-old girl went missing, the Durga Temple trust board, in a meeting held on Monday, has decided to install more CCTV cameras inside and around the temple. During the investigation of the case, five out of 76 CCTV cameras were found to be faulty. The board decided to renovate the CCTV camera network at a cost of ` 27 lakh. New servers will also be installed to store data.