Runaway boy bluffs, keeps metro staff on their toes

A runaway boy from Tumakuru sent metro personnel into a tizzy on Monday by bluffing them into thinking that he had separated from his grandmother. The staff spent nearly three hours tracing the woman  before realising the folly.  

The 10-year-old boy, whose name is being withheld to protect his rights as a minor, was found by Gita, a home guard assisting passengers at  an entry gate at the Kempegowda (Majestic) metro station.

"He was trying to insert a Re 1 coin into the automated fare collection (AFC) machine at the east entrance when she stopped him. Noticing that he was alone, the home guard got suspicious and started asking questions," one of Gita's colleagues said. The boy said he had come with his grandmother and got separated in the melee. He was taken to the control room in the station where the metro personnel spent a long time pouring over the CCTV footage to look for his grandmother.

The boy finally showed a woman exiting the station as his grandmother. A home guard was immediately sent along with him in a fruitless search for the woman at the KSRTC bus station.

"Later, after we kept questioning him, the boy said he studies in Hassan. But the principal of the school said the boy was transferred from the school two years ago," a metro official said.  

U A Vasanth Rao, public relations officer,  Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, said  it came as a blessing that the   boy's mother also worked at the school.

False information

"The principal helped us connect to his mother, who alerted us that the boy was giving false information and requested us to hold him. In fact, the boy had run away from a school in Tumakuru. He was finally sent home with a relative," he said.

An official said it was a relief to put an end to the matter.

"The boy kept the metro staff on their toes. They spent nearly three hours tracing him, but were happy when he was reunited with his mother," the official said.