Police used Whatsapp to reunite siblimgs with family.
Two sisters from Uttar Pradesh, one of them with intellectual disability, were re-united with their parents after they accidentally came to Maharashtra by boarding a wrong train, the police said.
The girls, 4 and 17, are residents of Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh. Last month, the two had gone to their aunt's house in the neighbouring Chandauli district, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deepak Deoraj said on Monday.
While returning home, the girls, instead of boarding a train to Ghazipur, got into another train headed to Mumbai, he said.
The girls, who spoke in Bhojpuri language, were found sitting on a platform of the Thane railway station on January 15, but they were unable to tell the police their address or home town, he said.
The police took custody of the girls and presented them before a local court which ordered that the elder sibling be admitted to the Thane Mental Hospital for treatment and the younger one be admitted at an orphanage in Dombivali town, Mr Deoraj said.
The court also asked the Thane police to search for their parents.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajendra Tambe arranged clothes and other essential items for the girls, the official said.
The anti-human trafficking cell of Thane police took assistance of a woman well-versed in Bhojpuri language to interact with the elder sibling at the hospital.
After some interaction, the police came to know that the two girls were residents of Dildarnagar area in Ghazipur, the official said.
The police then posted information about the girls on several WhatsApp groups and one such message was seen by the siblings' parents, who immediately contacted the Dildarnagar police station in Ghazipur, he said.
The parents later got in touch with the Thane police who helped them in identifying the siblings.
The parents then came to Thane where the police handed over the girls to them on Monday, the police officer added.