The moving story of how 5-year-old Tamanna was rescued from her kidnappers

P C Vinoj Kumar   |   Chennai

23-May-2011

Vol 2 | Issue 20

Five-year-old Tamanna is fortunate to be reunited with her family. On May 13, she was kidnapped by unidentified persons when her family had gone on an outing to the Marina beach in Chennai. But her kidnappers, who are yet to be arrested, had no idea of the massive ‘search operations’ that would be launched by Tamanna’s family to locate her. The middle class joint family left no stone unturned to save the girl.

Not content with filing a police complaint about the missing child, the family hit the streets, pasting posters and distributing handbills with Tamanna’s photo in it. They also left their phone numbers on the notices, requesting the public to contact them if they had any information about the child.

In safe hands: Tamanna’s parents thank Chennai police commissioner J K Tripathy for the police assistance in rescuing their daughter

Tamanna’s two uncles, their friends and neighbours fanned out across the city and its suburbs putting up the posters “We put ourselves in the shoes of the kidnappers and started imagining their movements. We pasted posters outside railway stations, and bus terminals. Soon people began calling up and giving information,” recalls 31-year-old Jamshed, Tamanna’s paternal uncle.

However, most leads hit a dead end. “We rushed to Tirupathi (about 150 km from Chennai) when someone said they spotted a girl like Tamanna there. We continued the search in spite of many such wild goose chases. Many of our friends and neighbours joined the search that continued day and night,” recalls Jamshed.

The family placed advertisements in newspapers. Jamshed’s boss, Khan, who runs an Airtel agency, created a Facebook page on the ‘Search for Tamanna’, which caught the attention of members of the media. Sanjay Pinto, Executive Editor of NDTV-Hindu, came forward to support their cause and played up the news of the ‘search for Tamanna’ on their channel.

As word spread, the kidnappers apparently developed cold feet. On May 19 the family received a call from an unidentified person who informed that they could find Tamanna at the Government General Hospital near the Central Railway Station.

Tamanna is unable to provide information about her kidnappers, but what was heartening to the family was that she was unharmed. “God is great. I thank the public and the media for their support in finding my daughter,” says Tamanna’s father, Syed Noor Ahmad.