Duo reunite boy with parents, return Rs 6.5 lakh found in school bag

Tushar Patil and Manish Rekte helped the RPF and GRP to reunite the seven-year-old boy with his parents. Pic/Hanif Patel

People hardly go out of their way to help those they don't know personally, but these two friends - Tushar Patil and Manish Reckte - from Vaiterna has proved it wrong by reuniting a seven-year-old boy Nasir Khan with his father Shabbir Khan, after the duo got separated at Virar railway station while getting off a train. Not only this, the boys also returned the R6.5 lakh cash Shabbir had kept in his son's school bag before boarding the train from Bandra station.

According to GRP officers, on Thursday, Shabbir, who owns a catering business, collected the money from a client in Bandra and kept it in Nasir's bag, as he was not carrying a bag himself. Then they boarded a Dahanu local from Bandra station. Though Shabbir managed to get off at Virar, Nasir got stuck due to the mad rush.

However, he got down at the Vaitarna station in Palghar. The youths - Tushar Patil and Manish Rekte - spotted him sitting on the bench alone around 9pm and approached him. When Rekte opened his school bag to look for his address and parents' contact details, they were shocked to see the bundle of notes inside.

The officers further said that the duo immediately called up the RPF helpline and later took the boy to Vasai GRP with help from the RPF cops. The Vasai GRP traced the boy's parents and handed him over to them along with the cash. Speaking to mid-day, Rekte said, "Both the RPF and GRP helped us in tracing the child's parents." "We thank the youth, RPF and GRP for bringing back happiness to our lives," said Shabbir.

When contacted, Senior PI Bhaskar Pawar of Vasai GRP said, "Both the boys have done a fantastic job. With their support and help we managed to trace the child's parents. The child's father was so worried that he had filed a missing complaint with the local police. We checked the recovered amount and found out that it belonged to Shabbir. We thanked both the boys and lauded their honesty by presenting flower bouquets to them."

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