14 Years Later, Missing Girl Traces her Lost Family In Ayodhya

A 25-year-old woman had gone missing from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when she was a child and she accidentally landed in Mumbai. Now 14 years later, she has reunited with her family.

In 2003, while playing at the Ayodhya railway station, she accidentally boarded a Mumbai-bound train. On reaching Mumbai, the police spotted her and sent her to an orphanage in Nerul. She started attending school.

In 2009, Pooja Subodh Verma got employed as a domestic help with Nitin and Sunita Gaikwad, a couple in Nerul. She has also been on a lookout for her parents for the last few years.

Interestingly, she could recall the names of her parents Subodh and Meera, brother Alok, their house in Ayodhya near the Sarayu river and a Ram temple, and that her father owned a shop of garlands and audio cassettes, said Nitin.

Attempts to Find the Family

He along with a local activist started the search for Pooja's parents in Ayodhya by contacting Uttar Pradesh Police. Through some contacts, they approached Santosh Tiwari of the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Lucknow.

Tiwari assigned the task of making inquiries to his men. Police looked for men who dealt in garlands and cassettes and also went through voters' lists in Ayodhya and Faizabad.

Pooja herself decided to visit Ayodhya earlier this month. She reached Ayodhya on November 5. She started searching the areas along the banks of the Sarayu. After a few hours, she managed to locate her house at Naya Ghat and found her family.

An elated Pooja informed Gaikwad and Patil that she had found her parents.

The Reunion

"We were trying our best to locate Pooja's family members. One day, I got a call from Pooja about her reunion with her parents and also spoke to her father. We are happy to hear that she has safely reached her home," Tiwari said.

Pooja's father Subodh said that it was the happiest moment of his life. He got his daughter back. "I don't want anything from the almighty now,", he added.

One of Pooja's kin shared that they had lost hope of finding her as they thought that she drowned in the river close to their house.

Read Also: Over a hundred teenage girls reported missing in the Capital in 2016