5-yr-old missing from Goregaon, found at Mumbai Central station

A five-year-old girl, who went missing from outside her Goregaon home on Friday, was found at the Mumbai Central station by a Government Railway Police (GRP) constable the same evening.

A five-year-old girl, who went missing from outside her Goregaon home on Friday, was found at the Mumbai Central station by a Government Railway Police (GRP) constable the same evening.

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The girl, Khushbu, who spent two days at the Dongri Children’s Home, was reunited with her family on Sunday. Police said they were trying to find out whether Khushbu was kidnapped or just wandered away from her house.

“We will be sending her for a medical examination,” said Ramrao Pawar, additional commissioner of police (north region).

“Though she is five years old, her mental faculties are not fully developed. She does not speak more than a few words. We are hoping she will somehow tell us how she got to the station. This is the first time Khushbu has been to the city,” Pawar added.

Originally from Uttar Pradesh, the girl, her mother, and two-year-old sister came to Mumbai three months ago. They were living with her maternal grandparents in an SRA building in Jawahar Nagar, Goregaon (West).

On Friday afternoon, Khusbhu was playing outside the house on the fifth floor. After some time, when her mother went to check on her, she found the child missing.

After searching for several hours, she lodged a complaint with the Goregaon police.

“When we couldn’t trace Khushbu for two days, we suspected that she had been abducted and registered a case of kidnapping on Sunday. As routine procedure, we forwarded photographs of the child to several children’s home in the city and discovered she was at the Dongri Children’s Home,” said Surendra Paithankar, senior inspector, Goregaon police station.

Khusbhu’s mother was informed, who rushed to identify her daughter and bring her back home.