Pooja Gaud was abducted by a couple in front of her school in Mumbai, India.
After nine long years, Pooja Gaud can finally rest in her mother’s lap.
Pooja disappeared at the age of seven on January 22, 2013. She says a couple caught her in front of her school in Mumbai, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
He was found on August 4 after what his mother described as a “miraculous escape”. Now he is 16 years old.
“I lost hope of finding my daughter. But the gods have been good to me,” says her mother, Poonam Gaud.
Police claimed that the girl was abducted by Harry D’Souza and his wife, Soni D’Souza, because the couple had no children.
Harry D’Souza has been arrested.
Before Pooja disappeared, she lived with her two brothers and her family in a small house in a slum.
He went to school with his brother the day he disappeared, but they had a fight and he entered the school and left him behind because he was late. That’s when the couple promised to buy him ice cream and took it away.
Ever since Pooja has returned home, her neighbors have been coming to visit her.
Pooja said the couple first took her to Goa and then to the states of Karnataka in western and southern India and threatened to hurt her if she cried or drew attention.
He says he was allowed to go to school for a short time. However, after the couple had a child, they took him and they all moved to Mumbai.
Pooja says the abuse got worse after the baby was born.
“They belted me, kicked, punched me. One time they beat me so hard with a roller that my back started to bleed. They also made me work around the house and outside the house 12-24 hours.”
The house where the kidnappers lived was close to Pooja’s family, but she did not know the roads, was constantly watched, had no money or a phone, so it was difficult to seek help.
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joyfulbut miraculous escape
One day, Pooja took the couple’s cell phone while they were sleeping and wrote their name on YouTube. She found videos and posters talking about her kidnapping and numbers she could call for help.
“That’s when I decided to seek help and run,” he says.
But it took seven months for Pooja to gather the courage to discuss the matter with Pramila Devendra, a 35-year-old domestic worker who works at the house where she works as a nanny.
Devendra immediately agreed to help him. One of the numbers on the missing poster belonged to Rafiq, Pooja’s mother’s neighbor. First, the mother and daughter made a video call, then a meeting was arranged.
Her mother says she was looking for a birthmark in her daughter that only she knew, and when she found it, she was filled with emotion. “All my doubts were instantly gone. I knew I had found my daughter,” she said.
Devendra is happy to be a part of this meeting. “Every mother should help the child who comes to ask for help. We may not be their birth mother, but we are still mothers.”
After reuniting, Pooja, some relatives and Devendra went to the police station to file a complaint. “I told the police everything. I even told them where the kidnappers live,” said the young man.
Thanks to his story, the police were able to identify and arrest the suspect.
Milind Kurde, Chief Inspector of DN Nagar Police Station in Mumbai, told the BBC that several cases were recorded against the defendants regarding kidnapping, threats, physical violence and violating child labor laws.
love can do anything
Pooja’s return home brought joy not only to her family, but to everyone who knew her. Neighbors who saw him when he was little will now visit him.
Meanwhile, her mother tries to make up for lost time with her daughter by cooking her favorite meal and combing her hair. The family tries to spend as much time together as possible, but life is difficult for them at the moment.
Pooja’s father, the sole breadwinner of the family, died of cancer four months ago. So his mother started selling sandwiches at a train station to support her three children. But his profits are meager and he is struggling to survive.
“I now have legal costs too. Our situation is so precarious that if I miss work one day, we won’t have money to eat the next day.”
Pooja is still processing her trauma. She has nightmares and is sad that she will never see her father again. She spends most of her time at home for safety or is accompanied by a family member when she goes out.
“I want to help my mother financially, but they won’t let me. I want to study too,” she says.
Despite these problems, the mother says she couldn’t be happier. “The work is very tiring but every time I see Pooja I find strength again. I am so happy that he is back.”
This text was originally published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62627828.
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source: Noticias
