india

Updated: Jan 07, 2019 14:29 IST

Three years after India brought the speech-and-hearing impaired woman back from Pakistan, a couple from a Hawasa village in north Bihar’s Darbhanga district, has claimed that she is their daughter.

After Geeta was brought back to India in October 2015, several attempts were made to reunite her with her family. However, the efforts proved futile as none of the families that had come to claim Geeta as their flesh and blood could establish their claim.

Early this week, the Darbhanga based family’s claim reached the local district administration office. The family from Hawasa village under Hayaghat block submitted evidence to substantiate their claim that Geeta is their lost Guddi.

Authorities have forwarded details of their claim to the home department. Geeta currently stays at Indore’s ‘Mook Badhir Sangathan’, an NGO.

The Indore NGO recently made Geeta talk to Hayaghat block development officer (BDO) Rakesh Kumar via a video call. The BDO with the help of an interpreter showed Geeta several places of the village to help her recall her memories if she hailed from Hawasa.

“Geeta seemed to have recognised several places in the village, which, she felt, were similar to her native village. She now desperately wants to travel to the village during weekends because of her studies. I am hopeful that whenever she visits the village, she would be able to relate herself more to the place, and may be, she would also recognise her parents and unite with them too,” the BDO said.

The couple was also present during the BDO’s video call with Geeta, but the latter did not recognise Shobha Devi as her mother. The BDO said she identified the spots like pond, local hospital, a mill and brick kiln situated in vicinity as very much identical to her native place. She said railway tracks passed close by her village home and there was a temple situated on a cliff. The temple and railway tracks are located a little faraway from Hawasa village.

The BDO said the Darbhanga district magistrate (DM) also spoke to his Indore counterpart and briefed him about the claim of the Hawasa family, whose differently-abled daughter had got lost in Haryana where they had gone to work as migrant labourers a decade ago.

Assuming that the woman might have a faded memory of her childhood, the BDO showed her various spots in the village through video calling. “She talked about mutter and machchli (peas and fish) which are found abundantly in this part of the state. I went to Chandanpatti village, situated at a distance and showed her a temple of lord Hanuman. She, however, appeared confused,” the BDO said.

A DNA test is the only hope to establish the authenticity of the claim, he added. On whether Geeta could be brought to Hawasa village, the BDO pointed out that these measures could be initiated only after approval from the ministry concerned.

In a petition submitted to the DM office, Shobha Devi, wife of Sheet Manjhi, contended that their six-year-old speech-impaired daughter had gone missing from Bhora Kalan in Gurugram 12 years ago. “When I had gone to serve meal to my husband in the farm, my Geeta was playing with 8-10 girls. However, when I returned I did not find here there. All efforts to trace her turned futile. We returned home and now my husband works in a factory in Haryana,” Devi said.

The family claimed that Geeta has striking resemblance to their lost daughter. Her appearance resembles Devi’s father and maternal grandfather, a native of Manoratha village in the same block. Devi has two sons, one of them born after her daughter went missing. In the village Anganwadi centre, the age of Devi’s daughter was mentioned as 5-year-old in 2006.

Neighbours of Sheet Manjhi and his elder brother Kamlu Manjhi said Geeta’s video clip and available photo of their lost daughter Guddi bears striking resemblance.

Earlier, the Hayaghat MLA, Amaranth Gami, who met the couple recently, assured to provide the family all help. He said Geeta could be the daughter of Devi. “I will arrange their travel and write a letter to the Indore based NGO, where Geeta is staying. A meeting between them will clear all confusion. If necessitated, DNA sampling will be done to verify the claim,” Gami said.