Kolkata, Oct. 11 -- In two separate incidents, prompt action by Kolkata Police saved an elderly man from drowning while a minor was rescued shortly after she went missing.
According to sources, on Saturday, around 8:35 am on Mahalaya, an elderly man was performing 'tarpan' at Gwalior Ghat when he slipped into the river and was swept away by the strong current. The incident was spotted by the Disaster Management Group team of Kolkata Police stationed at Hooghly River bank. A sepoy of the DMG team, identified as Goutam Koyal, jumped into the river to save him, while a civic volunteer identified as Shyamal Sardar provided assistance from the shore. Within a few moments, the elderly man was rescued unhurt.
In another incident on Saturday, the Kolkata Police rescued a seven-year-old girl from the Bowbazar area, hours after she went missing from a clothes distribution event on Mahalaya.
According to sources, the minor, a resident of the Bhanga basti, had gone to a nearby charity event where clothes were being distributed to the underprivileged between 1 pm and 1:30 pm on Mahalaya. Panic struck the family when the event concluded but the child did not return home. The girl's father approached the police to lodge a missing complaint.
The police registered a case and initiated probe. Teams began scanning CCTV footage from the locality to trace the minor. Initial clues emerged when camera footage captured the child walking near the Kumartuli area, and heading towards Esplanade.
However, her trail went cold after that point. The case was promptly shared with the Anti-Rowdy Section (ARS) at Lalbazar while a massive search operation was launched. The breakthrough came at around 1 on Saturday night, when a police patrol team located the minor wandering in the Bowbazar Police Station area. She was safely brought to the local police station and reunited with her family shortly after.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.