Geeta, the deaf and mute girl who has been living in Pakistan for the past several years and is being looked after by a social welfare group, has found another claimant in Uttar Pradesh.
A couple from Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district, about 150 km from here, has claimed that ‘Geeta’ was in fact their ‘Savita’, who had been missing for the past 13 years and demanded that the girl be handed over to them.
Rajaram Gautam and Anara Devi, residents of Dhamohan village in the district, reached Maheshganj Police station on Thursday and moved an application seeking custody of the girl, reports said.
The cops sent them to the office of the sub-divisional officer but the couple could not meet him as he was not in the office.
The couple said that they did not have TV in their home and so they could not see Geeta earlier.
“My relatives saw Geeta on TV and they recognised her immediately and informed us”, said Anara Devi.
She said that Geeta, who she claimed was “Savita”, was among her five children.
“Savita was deaf and dumb by birth and therefore she used to get more attention from us and the relatives”, she said.
Search for Geeta
“We have been visiting an ashram at Chapra district in Bihar when Savita went missing... we tried to trace her but did not succeed”.
She added that “A missing report had also been lodged with the police there”.
The district officials said that the couple had been asked to give an application in this regard.
“We will forward the application to the ministry concerned,” a district official said in Pratapgarh on Friday.
Earlier a couple from Amritsar had claimed Geeta. A family from Jharkhand too had claimed Geeta, as well.
Geeta, now 23 years, was being looked after in Pakistan by a social welfare group. The girl, who had accidentally crossed the border and reached Pakistan, had expressed her desire to return to India.
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