JOIN USMumbai: 'Missing' girl 166 reunited with family after almost a decade
In a miraculous reunion that was made possible by Mumbai Police on Thursday, a minor who went missing nine and a half years ago has been reunited with her family. According to a report by The Indian Express, Pooja Gaud was abducted when she was 7 and is now 16 when she has finally been traced.
Between 2008 and 2015, 166 missing reports had been filed at the DN Nagar Police Station in Mumbai. While the assistant Sub-Inspector Rajendra Dhondhu Bhosle tracked down 165 girls, the 166th, pooja Gaud remained missing. Though Bhosle retired in 2015, his search for Pooja continued, till he finally found the abductors, Harry D’souza and his wife Soni.
Pooja was last seen by her brother Rohit before she was abducted on January 22, 2013. They were outside their school in Andheri when Pooja refused to get in, upset about not getting recess money from home. Rohit, who was getting late ran inside the school and asked Pooja to follow him. Pooja never did and ever since had been missing.
Her abductors Harry Joseph D’Souza and Soni were in desperate need of a child of their own when they saw Pooja wandering outside the school. Police told IE that the abductors saw Pooja as an answer to their prayers of a child. Soon after abducting her, the couple had their own child and started to send Pooja as a maid to other households. In the house where Pooja was employed as babysitter, the house help came to her rescue as she googled Pooja’s name and found the old 'missing' posters and campaigns.
At 8:20 pm Thursday night, Pooja was reunited with her family.