'Missing' City child returns with tonsured head

The kidnappers of three-year-old Jahnvi Ahuja, reported missing from India Gate lawns over a week ago, had tonsured her head in an apparent bid to conc

eal her identity.

 And when they released her on Sunday night, they placed a placard around her neck, mentioning the girl and her father’s name and her uncle’s cell phone number.

The girl had not been ill-treated or starved, and instead appeared healthy and happy. “She was crying when a person first noticed her with the placard around her neck. But ever since she has been united with us, she has been happy,” said Jahnvi’s uncle Sumit Ahuja.

Very limited talks her family and police have had with her since her return point towards the involvement of at least two persons, including a woman, in her kidnap.

“When asked, Jahnvi said her mother and father tonsured her hair. She also says her parents had been taking her around in a car. I think her abductors were possibly a childless couple who wanted to adopt her,” said Rakesh. Police too suspected that a childless couple wanted to adopt her, but they are also investigating if an organised gang was involved.  

“The kidnappers probably panicked with the way the case was being highlighted and that forced them to return the girl,” said a senior police officer. 

The man who called the number displayed on the placard told police he was aware of Jahnvi’s disappearance through media reports. Another senior officer said that a decision on whether he would be awarded Rs 50,000 announced by the Police Commissioner for leading to Jahnvi would be taken only after proper investigations.

In any case, Jahnvi’s maternal uncle Gaurav was the first to reach the weekly flea market of Janakpuri’s D-Block on receiving the call at about 8.30 pm on Sunday. “Since Jahnvi had not met Gaurav many times, she refused to recognise him and that made the caller suspicious of his identity. Police were then informed and Jahnvi’s parents reached Mayapuri police station where she was taken to,” said Jahnvi’s uncle Ravi Ahuja.

But she was elated on meeting her parents. “Except for her hair, she has been returned to us in the condition she was taken. They had dressed her in the same frock which she had worn when she had gone missing. But it appeared to have been washed,” her father Rakesh Ahuja told Deccan Herald.