A couple in India have claimed that a nine-year-old boy abandoned at a bus stop in London last week is their son who was kidnapped three years ago.

The couple identified Gurrinder Singh as their son Sintu after photographs of the child were broadcast on Indian television.

Ganga Prasad, who claims to be the boy’s father, told The Times that Gurrinder had a “striking resemblance” to his lost son and he wants to travel to England to bring him home. “We saw on the television news that a child has been found in London. We saw a picture of a child that has a striking resemblance to our son — especially his nose and eyes,” Mr Prasad said.

“His cheeks have become a little bit fatter. His hair is longer. But it is three years since we saw him. The London police say he is aged nine and our son would have turned nine this year.”

Gurrinder has a distinctive mole on his left cheek. Mr Prasad said that his son, Sintu, also had a “small mark” on his cheek.

British police and social services have spent the past week trying to piece together the life of the boy, who could not name any relatives or friends when questioned. He told police that he was deserted at the bus stop in Southall, a busy West London suburb, by a “white uncle” last week.

It was thought originally that the boy was an orphan after he told officers that his parents had died before he came to England about two or three years ago.

According to Mr Prasad, his son came home from school on March 3, 2005, at about 5pm. He left his school satchel inside the house before going out to play. Shortly after 6pm his parents went to lock the doors of their small bungalow in the Sahapur Tikri area of Aurangabad, but realised that they could not find Sintu. On March 6 Mr Prasad filed a missing person report to the local police station. Mr Prasad said that his son was a “naughty but good boy” who had not run away before. “Every day we go to the police station to check, but until now there has been no sighting,” he said.

Sintu’s parents, who have three other children, suspect that Sintu was kidnapped. Although they received telephone calls demanding a ransom in the days after their son’s disappearance, Sintu was not found.

Gurrinder was found last Tuesday in a clinic apparently healthy but exhausted, leading police to believe that he may have travelled from any part of the country or even from abroad. Gurrinder, who is 5ft (1.52m), speaks only Punjabi. Detectives have been working on one theory that he was the victim of child-trafficking.

He said that he had been walking for several hours before reaching the health clinic in Hartingdon Road in the predominantly Asian Southall area of West London. He was at the clinic for about three hours before staff noticed him as they prepared to close. He is currently in the care of a Punjabi-speaking foster family and was due to be given a gentle in-depth interview this week by officers with skills at getting traumatised children to unburden themselves.

Bindia Devi, who believes that she is his mother, told Indian media: “It is a miracle for us and a ray of hope.”

The family have sent photographs of their son to local police and the Government in the hope that officials will be able to help to confirm the link.

Mr Prasad, a small businessman who runs a company that makes steel kitchen equipment, said that he had sought the help of district police to have the boy returned to India. He said that the family were willing to travel to England to ensure the return of the boy. “We know that the authorities in London are keeping him and that his name is changed,” Mr Prasadh said. “We would like to go there and find out what the problem is. We would like to have him back home.”

Police in Britain have called the case a “real conundrum”, and are now working on the developments after only learning of the Indian couple’s claims through the media. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “This new information will be reviewed as part of the ongoing investigation.”

It is thought that simple checks, such as a DNA test, will be able to verify the claims of the Indian couple.

The local authorities are asking India’s External Affairs Ministry to contact the British High Commission in Delhi to take the case forward, Ganesh Kumar, a local Indian police spokesman, said.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday that it had not been contacted by Indian authorities, though it believed that direct contact between British and Indian police would be made if necessary.

The latest developments add further intrigue to a case filled with riddles and unanswered questions. The boy told police last week that he had not been to school in the country and had largely stayed indoors watching television. It is not known where or with whom.

The identity of the “uncle”, who apparently left the boy at a bus stop, is also a mystery. He is described as a slim white man in his thirties.

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