Jul 9 (Mumbai Mirror): A Goregaon man, who has been searching for his daughter - a gangrape victim - for the last one-and-a-half months, finally met her on Tuesday, when the Children and Women Cell (CWC) produced her in the Bombay High Court.

The man had filed a petition in the high court saying his daughter had been missing since May 15, when she was admitted to the Mankhurd shelter by the CWC. He said in his petition that he was not informed that the CWC had taken her in its custody, nor was he allowed to meet her.

Interestingly, the girl has told the court that she wished to remain at the Mankhurd shelter, and doesn't want to return to her father's home.

According to the petition, filed on June 17, the girl was called for an inquiry to a shelter in Mankhurd by the CWC, and was admitted there without informing her father and other family members.

A division bench of Justices PV Hardas and AS Gadkari ordered the state as well as the CWC to file affidavits on the petition. After recording the victim's statement, the court observed that she "did not wish to reside with her father but wants to reside at the rescue foundation".

The gangrape came to light in January, when the girl's uncle discovered her diary, in which the teen had recorded the details of her trauma. She wrote that she had been introduced to three men by a family friend.

According to a first information report filed on March 20 by the Aarey Road police, the girl was gangraped by the three men, who had video-recorded her and threatened to make the footage public. Her diary mentions that her rapists then forced her to have sex with other men. The three men are currently out on bail.

After the FIR was filed, the girl wrote to the police and the CWC seeking protection, saying she was being threatened. She was called for a hearing on April 28, and subsequently on May 15, when she was taken into the CWC custody.

The next day (May 16), the girl's father went to the CWC shelter in Mankhurd, but wasn't able to meet his daughter, his petition, filed by advocates Sucheta Vetale and Gitanjali Shinde, said.

"From the Mankhurd shelter, the girl's father was sent to another shelter in Matunga, then to the police station when he tried to trace his daughter. The authorities were just passing the buck," the petition said.

The man said that he wrote to the CWC, the Aarey Road police, and even the chief minister and the prime minister to know his daughter's whereabouts, after which he moved the high court on June 17.