DNA

• Emerging from urinal, Bhivrebai finds herself all alone at Shivaji Park

Mumbai, Dec 7: Parliament on Wednesday December 5, approved a law which makes it a punishable offence if elderly parents are not taken care of by their grown-up children. But that did not stop Sachin Narvade, 40, from Nanded, from “abandoning” his 62-year-old mother, Bhivrebai, at Shivaji Park on Thursday.

“I fear I have been deserted by my family,” said Bhivrebai, tears rolling down her wrinkled face. She came to Mumbai on Wednesday, along with her son, to pay homage to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on his 51st death anniversary at Chaityabhoomi.

After visiting Chaityabhoomi, Bhivrebai and Sachin decided to rest for a while at Shivaji Park. “My son told me that it would be better to take some rest before catching the train back home,” Bhivrebai said, her anxious eyes constantly searching her son in the huge crowd.

After some resting a while, she asked her son to take her to an urinal. “I told Sachin to wait outside,” she said. But when she came out of the toilet, she was shocked to find that her son had disappeared. She searched every nook and corner of the park for him, but to no avail. 

“I pleaded with many to help me trace my son. Finally, a youth came forward and took me to the police control room set up at the park,” she said. The cops on duty put her name on the missing persons’ list. She was told to wait there, while police tried to trace her son.

“We made several announcements over the public address system, but no one from Bhivrebai’s family came forward,” said DCP (zone V) Dyaneshwar Phadtare. He added that they would wait till the end of the day for her son to return. In the event of him not showing up, police would set her up in a shelter home for missing persons.