After nine long years, 16-year-old Pooja Gaud can finally put her head on her mother’s lap.
Pooja went missing on January 22, 2013, when she was seven years old. She says she was picked up outside her school in the city of Mumbai in the western Indian state of Maharashtra by a couple who lured her with an ice cream.
On August 4, she was found in what has been described as “a miraculous escape”. Her mother, Poonam Gaud, says she is overjoyed with happiness.
“I had given up hope of ever finding my daughter. But the gods have been kind to me,” she says.
Police allege that the child was abducted by Harry D’Souza and his wife, Soni D’Souza, because the couple did not have a child of their own. They’ve arrested Mr. D’Souza.
Before she went missing, Pooja lived with her two brothers and parents in a small house in a suburban slum.
On the day she went missing, she had gone to school with her older brother, but the two had an argument and her brother entered the school and left her because he was late. Then the couple would have taken her and promised to buy her an ice cream.
Pooja says the couple initially took her to Goa and then to Karnataka states in western and southern India and would threaten to hurt her if she cried or drew attention to herself.
She says she was allowed to go to school for a short time, but after the couple had a child of their own, she was taken out of school and they all moved to Mumbai.
Pooja says the abuse got worse after the baby was born.
“They beat me with a belt, kicked me, beat me. One time they beat me so badly with a rolling pin that my back started bleeding. I also had to do chores at home and work in 12 to 24 hours.” long lanes outside.”
The house where D’Souza lived was quite close to her family’s – but, she says, she was unfamiliar with the roads, was always watched and had no money or telephone, and she couldn’t ask for help or ask for help. her trying to find the way home.
A happy escape
But one day, Pooja managed to get hold of the couple’s mobile while they were sleeping and typed her name into YouTube. She found videos and posters mentioning her kidnapping and numbers she could call for help.
“Then I decided to seek help and escape,” she says.
But it took her seven months to muster the courage to discuss it with Pramila Devendra, 35, a housekeeper who worked in the same house where Pooja worked as a babysitter.
Mrs. Devendra immediately agreed to help her. One of the numbers on the missing poster linked them to Rafiq, a neighbor of Pooja’s mother. The mother-daughter spoke first via video call and then a meeting was arranged.
Her mother says she checked for a mole she only knew existed on her daughter and when she found it, she was overcome with emotion. “All my doubts were immediately gone. I knew I had found my daughter,” she says.
Mrs. Devendra is happy to have played a part in this reunion. “Every mother should help a child who comes to her for help. We may not be their biological mothers, but we are still mothers,” she says.
After the meeting, Pooja, some family members and Mrs. Devendra went to the police station to make a complaint. “I told the police everything. I even told them where my captors lived,” she said. This led to the identification and arrest of the suspect.
Milind Kurde, senior inspector of DN Nagar Police Station in Mumbai, told BBC Marathi that cases have been registered against those accused of kidnapping, threats, physical assault and violating child labor laws.
Love conquers all
Pooja’s return home has brought joy to not only her family, but everyone who knew her. Neighbors who saw her when she was little came to meet her.
Meanwhile, her mother tries to make up for lost time with her daughter by cooking her favorite food and combing her hair. The two try to spend as much time together as possible, but life is tough for them right now.
Pooja’s father, the family’s sole breadwinner, died of cancer four months ago. So her mother took it upon herself to sell snacks at a train station to provide for herself and her three children. But the income is meager and she struggles to make ends meet.
“Now I also have legal costs. Our situation is that if I miss a day of work, we have no money for food the next day.”
Pooja is still processing her trauma. She has nightmares and is sad that she will never see her father again. For her safety, she spends most of her time at home or is accompanied by a family member when she goes out.
“I want to help my mother financially, but that’s not allowed. I also want to study,” she says.
But despite these issues, her mother says she couldn’t be happier. “The work is exhausting, but every time I see Pooja, I find my strength again. I’m just so happy she’s back,” she says.
