Youth Overhears Conversation At Police Station, Helps 55 YO Reunite With Family After 15 Years

Around two months ago when a Malegaon police station received a call from a Delhi shelter home about a 55-year-old woman from the textile town being found in the national capital, a constable nonchalantly jotted down the details. But a young school teacher who was at the station for passport verification and overheard the conversation, got curious when he heard the name of his locality, Saleem Nagar, being mentioned. Hameeda had gone missing from Malegaon 15 years ago, and only remembered that her home was near a flour mill in Saleem Nagar.

TOI

The teacher, Imran Karim Shah, took the caller's details from the police, contacted the shelter home, and then set out in search of her family. Within one and a half months, Hameeda was reunited with her husband and four children, who now lives in Mumbai.

Hameeda's husband, Aslam Qureshi (62), said, "We used to live in Kurla. Around 20 years ago, I sent her to her maternal home in Malegaon. She took our daughter, who was one then. After being there for four to five years, Hameeda went missing. We searched for her in Malegon, Nashik, Jalgaon and Dhule but in vain."

Hameeda's daughter was at her sister's home on the day she went missing. "That day, I went to Manmad [in Nashik] and got into a train that was on the platform. I don't remember the rest," Hameeda told TOI.

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The next she remembers is of doing chores at a mattress shop in Delhi. "An NGO took me from the mattress shop where I used to sleep outside," she said. She was at Apna Ghar Ashram, a shelter run by the NGO, for nearly three years. "The shelter home staff kept asking her about her name and address, but she couldn't recollect it. During a counselling session recently, she told them her name and locality, after which the NGO contacted Malegaon police," Qureshi said.

And it was this phone call that Imran Karim Shah overheard at the police station. "I heard the constable speaking about some missing woman from Saleem Nagar. Since I stay in the vicinity, I got curious," Shah told TOI.

When he made inquiries in Saleem Nagar, nobody remembered her. Besides, the address was also not clear. "After speaking to senior citizens in the area, I learnt that the woman's family was now living in Mumbai. So, I got the mobile phone number of her eldest son, who is married. When I was leaving for Mumbai to go and meet him, I called up the shelter home and asked them to send me her photo on WhatsApp. "On seeing her photo, her sons had tears in their eyes," said Shah.

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The family reached the shelter home in Delhi the very next day. "My mother recognised me immediately. We had tears in our eyes," said Amjad, Hameeda's eldest son. Then Hameeda kept staring at Qureshi and after half an hour she recognised him, he said. The shelter home officials allowed Hameed to leave with her family after a thorough verification.

Vinod Mittal, the secretary of Apna Ghar Ashram, said, "We have 20 ashrams across the country and have reunited over 12,000 rescued people with their families."