Maharashtra Police use social media to unite 6-yr-old with family

Amid news surrounding excessive use of social media, there are also instances where it proved to be helpful. One such incident is from Mumbai where the state police reunited a 6-year-old child with his family after over three years of separation.

Three-year-old Shubham Mandawkar went missing on March 22, 2016, his parents had filed a report with the Nehru Nagar police station and investigations started afterwards.

The police team began their search from the place where the child went missing but to no avail, the team, however, kept a photo of the missing child with them.

Recently, the police decided to take help of the social media and forwarded the child's photo to government officers and individuals from different districts. Within a few days, they received information from Akola region that an identical child is in a children's home.

The police then contacted the parents who identified the child and reunited them after the paperwork.

Shubham's parents were struggling since 2016 to find their lost son and didn't lose hope. They were filled with emotions as they got to know about their son's whereabouts.

Vicky Mandawkar, the father expressed joy and thanked the police forces. "We had a firm belief that our son would be reunited with us one day. We were able to get back our son due to the police, we thank them for this," Vicky told reporters here.

Vilas Shinde, a senior official in the police department said, "The kid went missing in 2016 since then our officials were searching for him. Quite recently, we uploaded his photo on Whatsapp groups with details of Shubham. News of someone who looks like Shubham being in Utkarsh Children's Home in Kurla reached police almost as soon as the photo was uploaded. The parents were thankfully able to identify the child and they were united.