Aneesh, a police officer attached to the Kerala Armed Police 5 Battalion at the Karuvarakkund police station in Malappuram, was on a train to his wife’s house in the Kottayam district on Friday night. As the train crossed the Kalamassery station in Ernakulam, he happened to see a young boy walking along another railway track.
The officer was quick to inform the nearest police station about the child. Within minutes, the Kalamassery police reached the spot and rescued two-year-old Devanarayanan. The boy, who was playing outside his house, had gone missing when he walked out shortly after 7.30 pm that night.
“I was travelling on leave to my wife's house. I was in the last compartment of the train, and after it crossed Apollo Tyres, I thought I saw a young boy walking along the track. Since it was completely dark, I happened to see the child for less than a second, when a flash of light fell on him. I immediately went up to the door to check if I really saw him, but by then the train had moved quite a distance. Initially I thought it would have been my imagination, but I couldn't put it off my mind. I thought, ‘What if I had indeed seen a child?’" he told TNM.
He then asked passengers in the other compartments if they had seen the boy. Only one of the passengers said that he had seen something.
“I called up Kalamassery police station immediately. A few years ago, I worked at this station, so the area was familiar to me. I informed the police of a short route they could take to quickly reach the spot and asked them to carry torchlights," said Aneesh. The police rescued the child soon afterwards.
"The boy had a small cut on his head. When his mother realised that Devanarayanan had gone missing, she and her family set out in search of him. But they walked towards the opposite side and so never found him," a police officer said.
Devanayanan's family had moved to Kalamassery only a few days back, after his mother accepted a job in the railways.
Soon after the incident, Aneesh called up the station to enquire if the child had been rescued.
"I felt really happy when I knew that the child was safe. The officers were quick to go there and find the child. When I heard the news, I felt like seeing him and so visited the family on Saturday," he said.
Even as praises continue to be showered on him from various quarters, Aneesh humbly remarked that what he did was only his duty.