Bengaluru, 24 Jan 

Since 21 January, when he went missing -- he left his coaching centre in Whitefield in Bengaluru and never returned home -- 12-year-old Parinav, a student of Deens Academy, Gunjur Branch, had always been one step ahead of the police.

By the time, the police tracked him through CCTV footages to a place, he had already left it to another. They hit a dead-end at, ironically, Majestic bus station – the fulcrum of Bengaluru that connects the city to every other corner in the state and beyond.

This is when the social media stepped in. Even as a few people volunteered to go physically to Majestic, many did what they do best – circulate the posters of the boy online.

Thanks to the widely circulated pictures, on Wednesday morning, a Bengaluru resident on visit to Hyderabad, saw a boy resembling the pictures on her phone, on the same metro as her and confronted him. Much to the joy of his family, friends and all those who invested in the saga and and reposted it on various social platforms, the boy confirmed his identity and was detained at Nampally metro station in Hyderabad.

“We ourselves don’t know the exact details of how he ended up there. We are now rushing to Hyderabad to pick him up, will update once we know all the details. But I really want to thank all those nameless strangers who helped us in finding my boy. Without his picture being splashed all over, the person in Hyderabad would never have thought to stop a boy and ask,” said Sukesh, Parinav’s father, a software engineer residing in Whitefield.

Parinav’s mother, who had earlier posted a video urging him to return home, which was also widely circulated in the social media, has now posted another video, thanking all those who helped them find the boy, a class 6 student, who has been handed over to Nampally railway authorities.