A seemingly harmless forwarded message on social media, requesting the public to help trace missing siblings was doing the rounds early this month.
“Dear friends, my kids are missing. Kindly contact if you find to see. Contact ********,” read the message below the viral photograph of the missing siblings. Messages accompanying this photo made a variety of claims – that the kids went missing from Brookesfield mall in Coimbatore or from LB road in Hyderabad; and that the kids and parents are both in the ICU since the children went missing.
However, a phone call to the mother of the children in the viral picture revealed that she and her husband were, in fact, in the middle of a domestic dispute and that her husband has taken the kids to Chennai with him - they did not go missing from a mall.
TNM also called up the Deputy Commissioner of Law and Order, Coimbatore who told TNM that the children’s mother had indeed filed a police complaint in a station in Coimbatore, which is being looked into. He categorically denied that the kids went missing from Brookesfield mall or that the parents were in the ICU.
TNM also verified with a local police station in Coimbatore, where the woman had filed an FIR stating that her kids and husband were missing. A police officer in the station told TNM confirmed that there was a domestic dispute between the woman and her husband and based on the complaint, the police traced her husband and their kids in Chennai. The police officer also said that the man and the children had not spoken to the woman after they went to Chennai, which prompted the woman to approach the police.
To follow up, TNM also rang up the police station a few days ago. “The husband and the children have come back and based on the woman’s statement, we have closed the case,” a police officer said.