After being abducted outside her school in Mumbai at the age of seven, Pooja Gaud has finally returned home in a miraculous escape. She spent the nine long years with an unloving, violent couple who would hurt her and make her work as domestic help in the neighbourhood
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Pooja Gaud, who was abducted from outside her school at the age of seven, has returned after a long gap of nine years with the help of a fellow domestic worker.
The return, which has been termed as a “miraculous escape”, is being celebrated for its unusual nature and the never-ending search for the missing girl that eventually helped her find the way home.
How did Pooja go missing and what happened to her?
On 22 January, 2013 Pooja with her brother Rohit left for school in Juhu Galli locality in Mumbai as usual. The siblings had a fight over the pocket money given by their grandparents, an annoyed Rohit walked a little ahead and entered the school. Pooja never made it through the gate.
Outside the school campus, she was allegedly picked up by a childless couple who took her away, promising to buy her an ice-cream, the BBC reported.
Despite continuous efforts Pooja remained missing and became known as the ‘Girl no 166’ as she was the 166th missing girl at the DN Nagar Police Station, The Indian Express reported.
While the missing person bureau under the guidance of assistant sub-inspector Rajendra Bhosale managed to find all the other 165 missing girls, it could not do so for Pooja.Where was she for nine years?
Pooja says that a couple Harry D’Souza and his wife, Soni D’Souza, had picked her up because they didn’t have a child of their own. Initially they took her to Goa and then Karnataka. The BBC reported that they would threaten to hurt her if she cried or drew attention to herself.
She attended a boarding school in Karnataka for a short while, but after the couple had a child she was pulled out of the school and all of them moved back to Mumbai.
After the child was born, her treatment at the hands of the D’Souzas got worse.
“They would beat me with a belt, kick me, punch me. One time they beat me with a rolling pin so badly that my back began to bleed. I was also made to do chores at home and work in 12 to 24 hour-long jobs outside,” the BBC reported Pooja as saying.
Even though the D’Souzas lived quite close to her family, she was unfamiliar with the roads and had no means to reach out.
How did she get back?
It took her almost seven months to give shape to her plan to escape and find her way home.
One day, she managed to get her hands on the couple’s mobile phone while they were asleep. A quick search of her name landed her in news stories, videos and posters mentioning her kidnapping. She also found numbers she could call for help.
The next step involved seeking help from someone else and she found it in a fellow domestic worker, Pramila Devendra, who worked with Pooja at the same house.
While three numbers went unanswered, the last number connected them to Rafiq, a neighbour of Pooja’s mother.
A quick video call between the mother-daughter was arranged and then she finally reached home on 4 August.
After registering a complaint at the police station, D’Souza was arrested on the charges of kidnapping, issuing threats, physical violence and for flouting child labour laws.With inputs from agencies
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