According to reports his son Meraj alias Pappu, then nine-year old, went missing from Barachatti area on July 5, 2009. On December 14 this year, Kamruddin, who pulls rickshaw in Agra, spotted Meraj in a photo published in a vernacular daily. The photo was reportedly of a group of children rescued from a Karachi-based madarsa a day earlier, that is, on December 13.
Both he and his wife. Amna Khatoon, identified Meraj. He said he saw the photo in Agra and immediately returned to his native village from there and showed the photograph to wife who, too, identified one of the kids in the photograph as their son.
If he is to be believed Meraj had gone to the local market to purchase some goods but never returned. A missing complaint was lodged at Barachatti police station.
Now he had approached Gaya senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vinay Kumar with the photograph and a plea to bring back Meraj from Pakistan.
The SSP said that he had told Kamruddin that he would contact the Union home ministry officials and discuss the matter with them.
The SSP refused to comment on the legitimacy of the rickshawpulle’s claim.
The issue had raised several serious questions. Whether Kamruddin was a regular reader of newspaper or someone else saw the photo and informed him. How can someone else in Agra, which is not his native place, identify Meraj? If the boy shown in the picture is really his son than it seems that the child trafficking racket is flourishing at much larger scale in the state?
While some officials suspect possible involvement of international terrorists’ gang others say that nine-year old is too tender an age for this purpose.

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