Since January 21, when he went missing — he left his coaching centre in Whitefield in Bengaluru and never returned home — 12-year-old Parinav, a student of Deens Academy, Gunjur Branch, had always been one step ahead of the police.

By the time, the police tracked him through CCTV footages to a place, he had already left it to another. They hit a dead-end at, ironically, Majestic bus station – the fulcrum of Bengaluru that connects the city to every other corner in the state and beyond.

This is when the social media stepped in. Even as a few people volunteered to go physically to Majestic, many did what they do best – circulate the posters of the boy online.