The three missing children at Tatanagar on Sunday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Jan. 3: Three schoolchildren who went missing from their homes in Patna city last evening were traced at Tatanagar railway station today.

The senior-most among them, 14-year-old Mukesh Sharma, said two strangers had picked them up but they had managed to flee.

Mukesh, a Class VIII student of New Central High School, revealed that he was playing in front of his house along with two other children of the locality when two strangers told him that his father, Indradev, was at a relative’s house and wanted Mukesh to come there immediately.

“I did not suspect foul play and accompanied the two strangers, who boarded an auto-rickshaw and took us to the Patna railway station, where he offered us biscuits. As soon as I took a bite, I lost consciousness. Later, I awoke in the South Bihar Express,” Mukesh told The Telegraph.

When he woke up he found that the two children he had been playing with, brothers Ram Kumar (7) and Santosh (8), were also in the same compartment. The two strangers who had picked them up were keeping an eye on them from a distance.

Mukesh said that when the train stopped at Asansol station, he sneaked into the AC coach along with the two children.

“We hid in one of the bathrooms of the coach and when the train finally arrived at Tatanagar station in the morning, we came out and contacted a policeman,” Mukesh narrated.

He claimed that he had Rs 200 with him but the strangers had taken the money. He said his father was a businessman in Patna.

The two brothers, who were students of a government school were subdued and supported what Sonu said.

The government railway police of Tatanagar picked up the three children and handed them over to the railway protection force for necessary inquiry and action.

Officer-on-duty, RPF, Tatanagar, Sanjeev Kumar said that it was too early to say anything about the circumstances that had led to the children arriving at Tatanagar station.

“We will register a case only after getting the statement of the children and their parents. We have summoned the parents to the steel city immediately,” said Kumar.

Reema, Mukesh’s mother, when contacted over phone, said that they were on their way to Jamshedpur.

“I will speak on the issue only after talking to my son,” said the worried mother.

(All names have been changed.)