By Zafar Abbas
New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS): On a routine visit to an observation home in Vijay Vihar, the Delhi Police during a counselling session came across a 16-year-old girl.
The Anti-Human Trafficking unit of South East Delhi Police was told by the observation home that the girl was brought to the place six years ago when she was 10.
Realising that the girl went missing when she was just a 10-year-old child, the police team decided to pick up the case and look for the parents of the girl.
The first clue that the police team got from the girl was that she was from Rath village in Uttar Pradesh. However, she could not provide the complete address. Taking a hint from the girl, the police team then searched Rath village in UP on Google Maps.
The first location was found to be district Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh. Immediately the police control room of District Auraiya was contacted and information was shared with them by Delhi Police. The control room informed the investigating cops that one village by the name of Rath lies in their jurisdiction under Bidhuna police station.
After gathering the facts, the SHO of the police station provided some numbers of village heads and they all were contacted and information about the minor girl and her picture was shared with them but no fruitful result was obtained.
Without losing hope, the Delhi Police team persisted with efforts to locate the girl's family.
"During further inquiry, one village head informed that another village Rath lies under the jurisdiction of district Aligarh (UP). Cell numbers of village head were then procured and further help was sought to connect the child with family. He shared the information with the 'Imam' of a Masjid and a massive hunt was pursued through the Imam," said DCP South East Delhi R.P. Meena.
Announcements were made at the local mosques together with one-to-one interactions by the villagers and finally on September 11, the family of the missing girl was traced.
"The family identified their child through video conferencing," Meena said.
The girl was then handed over to the family bringing the ordeal of the girl and her family to an end.