Little Sohail has no words to express how he feels just at the thought of getting a hope to return to his family any moment now.
Though Sohail had very faint memories of his native place Churakutti in Bihar, the police back in his home-state have been able to connect one link to the other and are hoping to knock at his door very soon. “Though we failed to find any village called Churakutti in our district, it is advisable to get in touch with the Chakulia police station near the West Bengal border. There is a big market called Rampur around which is the Shahpur market that Sohail said they sold their farm,†said Sanjay Jha, the SHO of Kochadhaman Police Station in Kishanganj district
Though Jha did not have the number of Chakulia police station, his phonebook luckily had the number of AS Mishra who had once got in touch with him as the officer in charge at Chakulia. We called Mishra, who has now been transferred from Chakulia but gave an important input regarding how it would be better to call the Goalpokhar police station in North Binjapur district since that was closer to Churakutti village. When we called on the number given by Mishra we seemed to have clearly hit a jackpot.
Sub-Inspector PB Das of Goalpokhar police station identified all the locations mentioned by Sohail and also confirmed that the area is popular for turmeric farming as Sohail mentioned. We told Das about Sohail lately mentioning a Maulvi Mukti Shabbir at one Islampur High School. Das confirmed that Islampur is one of their regions sud-division and that they shall get in touch with the said Maulvi soon.
The developments have overwhelmed not just Sohail but also Christina D’Souza who has been taking care of him in Mumbai for over a month now. “ Reuniting him with his family will be our dream come true and we shall hope he remembers us fondly in his home town and impresses his villagers with the English he has learnt with us,†said a grinning D’Souza.