Man claims kidnapped girl is his daughter

Shivaji Anuse (48) believes that the 14-year-old who had been forced into begging and raped by her abductor is his daughter who went missing from a construction site in 1999.

Shivaji Anuse (48) believes that the 14-year-old who had been forced into begging and raped by her abductor is his daughter who went missing from a construction site in 1999.

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Last week, the 14-year-old had filed a complaint with the Bandra police alleging that Sudhir Chaudhary (35), a beggar, had kidnapped her when she was three and had been raping her for the last two years.

The police arrested Chaudhary, who lived with the victim on the footpath near Tata Colony on SV Road at Bandra (West), on September 24.

On Tuesday, the police also arrested Julie Masquita, who had allegedly had helped Chaudhary abduct the victim in 1999, from Bandra (W).

“After reading an article about her in a regional paper in Sangli, I thought that the victim could be my daughter and I came to Mumbai,” said Shivaji, who met the police on Monday.

Shivaji and his wife, Anandabai, who worked as construction labourers, used to live in Vasai. Two years ago, they shifted to their hometown in Limbewadi in Sangli. The victim was reportedly the second of their three children.

Shivaji told the police that his three-year-old daughter went missing in 1999 from a construction site in Bhayandar (West) where he and his wife were working.

After searching through the night, he had also registered a missing person’s complaint with the Bhayandar police. The Anuses had given up all hope of finding their daughter after six months.Though Shivaji is confident that the victim is his daughter, the authorities at Mankhurd children’s home, where the girl is currently lodged, and the police are not convinced.

“He does not have any documentary evidence to prove that the victim is his missing daughter. He has returned to Sangli and we will call him soon for a DNA test,” said investigating officer AR Mulani. But the girl does not want to return to “her family”.

She told the police that she does not trust anyone after the ordeal she had been put through by the man she had considered her father for nearly a decade.

“She blames her family for the torment that she has suffered. She says she does not want to return to her family,” added Mulani.