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Childhood photo helps reunite trafficked girl
LUCKNOW A teenaged girl, who was allegedly trafficked at her age of 7 years, was reunited with her mother after nine years. Although the girl’s name had been changed,
LUCKNOW A teenaged girl, who was allegedly trafficked at her age of 7 years, was reunited with her mother after nine years. Although the girl’s name had been changed, she was recognized by her childhood photo.
A native of Simdega district of Jharkhand -- Preeti was allegedly trafficked by a village woman to a Delhi based-job consultancy firm around nine years back. The consultancy firm got her employed in some house in Lucknow.
After she was made to work in different houses, she was handed over to police a few days back, when she told the family where she was working about her wish to go home. Preeti -- also named as Shabu by one Muslim family where she used to work -- revealed some details about her village to the police.
“The cops asked about her house etc but she could not tell them much,” said Sangeeta Sharma, member Child Welfare Committee, Lucknow.
She was handed over to Hussainganj police station around two weeks ago and cops contacted Jharkhand police and shared the little details that the girl had revealed.
“It was not easy to find her village as well as her home. Simdega police went to the village as per the details shared by the girl and asked villagers about the girl who had gone missing around nine years ago,” said a Simdega policeman.
Akshay Kumar, assistant sub-inspector, Simdega police, who had come here to take the girl back, said, “Villagers do not register a complaint if their children go missing. Either they know where their children have gone or they are hopeful that they will return on their own,” he said, adding, “Absence of any such complaint was another hurdle to find her home.”
Kumar said around a week ago, a woman named Basanti came to the police station in Samdega with an old photograph, saying, “My daughter had gone missing around nine years ago” and showed her old photograph. Kumar said, “We showed her the latest picture of Preeti but her mother could not recognize her.”
Then Preeti’s childhood picture was shared with Lucknow police and they showed it to the girl. “She recognized her picture as well as her mother,” said Sangeeta Sharma.
When her mother came here on Thursday, Sharma said, “She could not recognize Preeti. She was surprised to see her daughter in front of her after so many years.” After completing all formalities, the girl has been handed over to the mother and Jharkhand police, said she.
Basanti said her husband died around 12 years ago and she got married to another man. “His first wife trafficked my daughter to Delhi,” she said.
