Three minor boys who went missing from Delhi on July 25 were found safe at a railway station in Maharashtra's Nashik on Tuesday — four days after they left home for Mumbai in the hope of meeting Bollywood actor Salman Khan, police said.
The trio, aged 13, 11, and 9, had reportedly befriended one Wahid from Jalna in Maharashtra through an online gaming platform. They decided to visit him after he claimed that he had met the star once and could facilitate their meeting with him, police said.
Without informing anyone, they set out for Jalna on July 25, planning to travel to Mumbai and meet the actor. However, when Wahid learnt about the kids' families and police were searching for them, he backed out of the meeting.
The boys then changed their plan and disembarked at a railway station in Nashik, where they were found by police.
The minors study in the same school in the Sadar Bazar area of the national capital.
During the initial investigation, police found a handwritten note at one of the missing children's houses, mentioning their intention to meet a person named Wahid from Jalna.
CCTV camera footage from the area near their homes showed the boys moving towards Ajmeri Gate, suggesting they might have boarded a train from New Delhi Railway Station.
After analysing train routes, police suspected that the boys had boarded the Sachkhand Express bound for Maharashtra.
Simultaneously, the Delhi Police coordinated with the Railway Police and their counterparts from Jalna, dispatching teams to several possible locations. A search at Wahid's residence in Jalna did not yield any leads; however, brief activity on one of the boys' phones helped police trace their location to Nashik.
