The police in Telangana’s Yadadri Bhongir district on Sunday admitted three children to the Hyderabad child care centre, allegedly abandoned by their mother and stepfather in the temple town of Yadadri at midnight of January 14, officials said.
The Yadagirigutta police said it found the abandoned children – a 10-year-old boy, along with his eight-year-old sister and five-year-old brother, in a pathetic condition in front of the Vaikuntha Dwaram (temple arch) and later at the bus stand in biting cold.
“We initially booked a case of missing and kept them under our care. We started enquiring about their parents, but the children were in fear and did not reveal many details. Later, we called the members of the District Child Welfare and Protection Committee (DCWPC) and handed the kids to them on January 20,” Yadagirigutta inspector of police Shiv Shankar said.
The eldest among the three gave sketchy details to DCWPC members. “Inquiries revealed that the children hail from Bhagat Singh Colony of Saroornagar in Ranga Reddy district. Their father had abandoned the family three years ago, and their mother had been in a live-in relationship with an auto driver for the last two years,” the inspector said.
After she gave birth to a girl child a few months ago, their stepfather started torturing the three children born out of her first husband.
“On midnight of January 14, the mother and stepfather brought the three kids to Yadagirigutta temple town in an auto rickshaw and abandoned them there,” Shankar said.
The boy told the child welfare committee officials that the mother and stepfather had tied up their hands with rope and stuffed clothes in their mouths so they would not cry before leaving the place in the same auto rickshaw.
“After they left the spot in the same auto, the boy managed to unfasten the rope and freed his siblings. When they started moving around the temple area, a local constable noticed them and brought them to the police station,” the inspector said, adding that no case had been booked so far, as there was no complaint from anybody.
“It appears, the mother and the stepfather abandoned them, as they felt they felt the kids would become hurdles in their live-in relationship,” the inspector said.
The 10-year-old boy also shared the contact number of his paternal uncle, the brother of his biological father. His uncle, who was summoned by the police, came and identified the children but could not reveal the present whereabouts of his brother since they had fallen apart for quite some time, the police said.
Yadagirigutta sub-inspector of police Sudhakar said the children were shifted to Sisu Vihar, run by the state women’s development and child welfare department at Madhuranagar in Hyderabad. “We shall try to trace their biological father,” he added.
