Facebook helps in reuniting Hyderabad boy missing for 8 years with family

Social media helped parents of a boy, who went missing in 2011, in tracing him to Punjab and reuniting him with them, city police said Wednesday.

"The boy, whose Facebook profile came to the notice of his mother by chance, was found at Ranakala village in Amritsar district after Cyber Crime sleuths traced the internet protocol address of the network used by him," Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat said.

The boy was missing since January 26, 2011, after he left his home without informing anyone. His mother had filed a police complaint then but the boy remained untraced.

Meanwhile, the woman in August, 2018 came across the Facebook profile under the name 'Dinesh Jena Lima' with her son's photograph and lodged a fresh complaint. "The Cyber Crime sleuths investigated the matter, collected the IP address and traced the location of the missing boy to Amritsar district," Bhagwat said.

"A police team went to Punjab and brought back the boy, who was under the guardianship of a landlord there, and reunited him with his parents," the Commissioner added.