Hyderabad: Thanks to a birthday celebration video posted on social media, a 15-year-old boy with intellectual disabilities who went missing from his home in Patancheru about two weeks ago, has now been reunited with his parents.The heart-warming reunion took place on Wednesday after a family friend recognised the boy, Mahesh, in a video of a political leader’s birthday celebrations at the Home for the Disabled in Bansilalpet, Secunderabad, and alerted his parents.The minor had been lodged there since July 13 when he left home. His parents had subsquently filed a missing complaint with the Sangareddy police and had started a search for him.The family told TOI that police had found him wandering on a road and shifted him to the home after they were unable to trace his family.“We looked everywhere for him. We even went to Gulbarga in Karnataka as few people from our locality are from there, but couldn’t find him. The video reached us just when we had lost all hope,” said a teary-eyed Mallesh Goud, Mahesh’s father who works as a daily wage labourer. The minor could neither walk nor talk until the age of eight or nine and, even now, cannot walk properly or meet age-appropriate developmental milestones, he added.The day he went missing, Mallesh said that the teenager had stepped out of their home at around 8 pm. But he did not return till next morning. “He knows the locality well. At night, he goes and sits near a shop. Sometimes, he doesn’t come back till the wee hours. But when he did not return even by 7.30 am, we got worried and started looking for him everywhere,” the 51-year-old said.After searching Patancheru, Zaheerabad, Sadashivpet, Shankarpally and Miyapur, among other areas, the family lodged a missing complaint on July 15.He said they found their son only because a young man from the locality showed them a video of him crying during BRS workers’ visit to the home to celebrate the party’s working president KT Rama Rao’s birthday on July 24. “It was God’s grace that helped us find him. The main problem is that he doesn’t tell people his real name when they ask. So, neither the police nor the home staff could trace us,” he added.Members of the home management said they admitted the boy after police found him on the road and brought him to the facility.“When the police brought him to the home he gave us his name, his father’s name and said he was from Patancheru. But he was not in a position to provide more details. When BRS workers visited the home and sponsored meals for the inmates on KTR’s birthday, they recorded a video. That video ultimately helped the boy reunite with his family,” said Rajeev Rao, a member of the home’s management.
