Aarti with parents. (Express photo: Nidhi Rana) Aarti with parents. (Express photo: Nidhi Rana)

All it eventually took was entering her father’s name on a police central database and doing a search, twice. Seven days later, the teen at a government-run shelter for girls in Kanpur, who was resisting being shifted as she wished to continue studies, was identified as the child from North East Delhi who went missing eight years ago.

Her arm interlocked through her daughter Aarti’s at the same spot from where she went missing, Pinki considers it a miracle. Anything could have happened to Aarti, but she returned, Pinki, 32, says.

Father Pandit Kedarnath, 35, says he had lost the energy to hunt for Aarti after the first few years, but never lost hope. “I thought one day she will return.”

Aarti says that in all these eight years, as she was moved between homes, she hung on to memories. “I knew I was from Delhi and the names of my parents. I just hoped that someday I will meet them.”

Aarti left home on April 26, 2008, afternoon, trailing her mother to the market in Bhajanpura, where they lived. Found roaming around by two policemen, she was first taken to a women’s short stay home at Nirmal Chhaya in Delhi, and later moved to a home in Agra. Officials determined her age as 11 when she was found, though her parents say she was eight at the time.

In September 2009, she was moved to Rajkiya Balika Grah in Kanpur.

Aarti couldn’t recall where they lived in Delhi when questioned by officials. “I only knew my maternal grandmother’s house in Agra. They took me to my village and later shifted me to Kanpur,” she says. Everyone at the Kanpur home started calling her Laxmi as she resembled someone with the same name. Over time, in official records, the name Aarti was forgotten.

In December last year, Aarti turned 18 as per records prepared by the Agra centre. As an adult, she couldn’t continue to stay at the Kanpur home and officials decided that she would be moved to a home in Rae Bareli. Aarti, who was preparing for her Class VI final examinations at the time, requested not to be shifted.

Says Kanpur Child Welfare Committe member Girish Awasthi, “Two months back, I received a letter from her saying she wished to study more and to give her examination. She insisted that she did not want to go to Rae Bareli.”

The person sponsoring her education at the Kanpur centre also backed Aarti.

Awasthi decided to pull out the girl’s records out of curiosity. He was in for a shock. “I searched her father’s name on ZipNet (Zonal Integrated Police Network), which keeps a track of missing children, and in my second attempt, found a match (including a photo match), along with details of an FIR at Bhajanpur Police Station in Delhi,” says Awasthi.

On March 12, he called up Bhajanpur Police Station SHO Vijay Shrotiya and told him about Aarti. However, when police tried to follow up, they ran into a wall.

The missing person’s complaint by the family, which was later turned into a kidnapping case, had been closed with an “Untraced report” a year later.

Shrotiya set up a team under ACP Sandeep Lamba to find the parents or any relative of the girl that went missing in 2008. “But neither the father’s number mentioned in the FIR worked nor his current address could be found in Delhi.”

Police decided to visit her parents’ native place in Agra. There they obtained the mobile number of the girl’s aunt who, in turn, gave them Kedarnath’s number.

On March 16 morning, Kedarnath got the call he had been waiting for for eight years. A labourer, he was on his way to work then. “A policeman called me and said there was a possibility that my daughter had been found.”

Kedarnath went to the Kanpur centre along with police, and there, met Aarti. “After verifying the facts, the girl was produced before the Child Welfare Committee, Kanpur City, which handed over the custody of the girl to her father.”

After Aarti went missing, Kedarnath says, he spared no effort to find her. He called up all his relatives near Delhi in the hope that Aarti may have gone there. “I searched every orphanage in Delhi. If somebody gave the slightest hint of any missing girl being found, I would reach there. Even though police filed a ‘untraced report’ in 2009, I kept looking for another two years.”

Pinki recalls crying herself to sleep every night for the first three years, and seeing Aarti in her dreams. She ensured she never left her two sons alone. “If I went to the market, I would hold both of them by their arms. They go to the same school, study in the same class, and eat from the same tiffin box. If I wasn’t well, I would not allow them to go to school,” says the mother.

“After Aarti returned, she slept beside me. I kept touching her to confirm it was not a dream. Once I went to the washroom, washed my face and touched her again to see if she was really there. I fear I am still living in a dream,” Pinki says.

No one knew Aarti’s actual birthday at the Kanpur home so her birthday was celebrated on April 15. Her actual birthday is on September 14. Her father says he will celebrate on both the days now. He is also planning to enrol her into “a good school in Delhi”.

Her dream to study within reach, Aarti admits she sometimes misses her stay in Kanpur. Particularly one of the caretakers, Meena, who had almost become a mother to her. Aarti carries Meena’s photo with her at all times.

“I couldn’t even meet her when I was leaving. She has promised to meet me in Delhi.”

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