TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The cricket craze amongst youngsters literally drove this minor boy from Kollam district of Kerala to run away from his hometown and head to Goa with a cricket bat and kit.
But, before he could actually play a few shots in any of the cricket clubs in Margao, he landed in the trap laid by the Konkan Railway police as a police team headed by PSI Dattaguru Sawant successfully traced him while he was heading towards Rawanfond on Saturday morning.
The 14-year-old boy, studying in Std IX, had left his hometown by the Khochivalli Express and arrived in Goa a day ago to join any cricket club imparting training in the nuances of cricket. He is believed to have laid his hand on the addresses of the local Margao clubs via the internet. However, he is believed to have landed at the Ratnagiri railway station, from where he boarded the Konkan Kanya Express heading to Margao on Saturday morning.
Konkan Railway PSI Dattaguru Sawant said the police received a call from the boy’s father stating that his son will land at Margao railway station by the Konkan Kanya express. “The Father was anxious after the boy informed him over his cell phone that he has landed at Ratnagiri instead of Margao,” PSI Sawant said.
Incidentally, the police could not identify the boy at the Margao railway station when the Konkan Kanya Express chugged in this morning, prompting PSI Sawant to get back to his father to seek the boy’s cell phone number. Armed with the cell phone number, PSI Sawant contacted the boy posing himself as a secretary of a local cricket club and managed to convince him that he could undergo a month’s training at the club. “I told him over the phone to come to the club just meters away from the railway station. When our police team went in search of him, he was heading towards the Rawanfond road,” PSI Sawant said.
The boy’s father has left Kollam for Margao and may arrive either tonight or Sunday morning to take custody of his son, who is presently referred to , the protective home in Merces.
