Bittu with his mother. Telegraph picture

Raiganj, Nov. 24: A deaf-mute teen who had run away from home when his parents refused to take him to an uncle’s place ran again today, six months on, when he saw his mom.

Bittu Hela and his mother held each other tight and wept for minutes. Not a word was spoken.

The Howrah boy who can neither write nor use the sign language cannot say how he landed in Balurghat, South Dinajpur, 420km from home.

The principal of the home for speech and hearing impaired where he reunited with his family today knows how he reached Raiganj in North Dinajpur from Balurghat. “The court sent him here after police found him in Balurghat,” said Partho Sarothi Das, principal of Suryodaya. Bittu has been there since July 2.

Three days ago, Das saw a missing boy’s picture at the state sports association for the deaf in Calcutta and thought the face looked familiar. “I had gone there after being picked as the manager of the Bengal badminton team for the hearing impaired,” Das said.

On his return to Raiganj, he traced the 14-year-old, but realised it was difficult to communicate with him. The only thing Bittu could convey to the teacher was that he came from a congested place, with many vehicles and lot of noise.

Das called up the number given below the picture and got in touch with Chandan Hela, a group-D employee of the state power board. If he was the father, he’d know his voice, Das thought.

He made four children from his school speak over the phone with Chandan. “The third boy was Bittu. Chandanbabu broke down as he heard him speak. I was listening on the parallel line,” said Das.

The father was told to come over from Salkia in Howrah with Bittu’s birth certificate and a family album.

The home had lined up an identification parade today.

Even before all the boys had lined up around 8am, mother Yamuna Devi spotted her child and started running. Bittu saw her and darted out of the queue.

Barely able to speak, Chandan recalled the day his son had gone missing. “He wanted to visit his uncle, who stays near Khanna cinema in north Calcutta. We would not give him permission but soon he was missing. Local shopkeepers said they had seen him take a bus.”

The parents went to police when the uncle told them Bittu had not reached his house.

“We had given up all hope of finding him till the phone call on Saturday,” said the father. He had no clue about how his son came here. He couldn’t care less.