Sanjay with aunt Sangma Gante

VADODARA/RAJPIPLA: Had it not been for his Aadhaar card enrolment, Sangma Gante from Latur district in Maharashtra would have never been reunited with her hearing- and speech-impaired orphan brother Sanjay. Sanjay, who had left their house in Henchal village of Latur after a fight with his elder brother in 2014, was recently reunited with the family, in Rajpipla town of Narmada district after officials there found his details on the government website.

After his parents died in 2011, Sangma had been taking care of him.

On March 22 last year, the Vadodara railway police found Sanjay, then 11, loitering around alone on the railway station. Efforts to locate his family proved futile as he could not communicate. He was sent to Vadodara-based Don Bosco Shehalaya where he was kept for 15 days.

Later, he was shifted to the government-run deaf and mute residential school run by Bal Suraksha Ayog at Rajpipla. Narmada district child protection officer Chetan Parmar said, "We also tried to get some clue or information from him about his home but in vain. We decided to name him Aakash and admitted him in class II." Parmar added that since it was mandatory to have Aadhaar enrolments for all children, a camp was organised in January 2017 where a finger print and retina scan was done for all students.

After a week, when all other students' enrolment was successful, only Aakash's registration was missing. On checking the Aadhaar website, it came to light that the details duplicated. On checking further, his Aadhaar enrolment of year 2011 was displayed along with the photograph and details of Sanjay Nagnath Yenkur.

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