Separated from her family at Katni railway station, 14-year-old girl returns home

Separated from her parents during a train journey nearly three months ago, a 14-year-old girl of Odisha's Nuapada district, who had to work as a maid in Gujarat before being rescued by an NGO, returned home, police said on Monday.

The girl, Sunita of Fokatpada village, was brought by a team of Gujarat Police all the way from Gandhi Nagar and handed over to her parents on Sunday, sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Nuapada, Ashish Singh said.

While travelling with her parents and brother in July, Sunita, daughter of a migrant labourer, had alighted at Katni junction station in Madhya Pradesh to get water from the platform when the train left.

Usually migrant labourers set out to earn their livelihood after harvest season and return to their village during this time every year. Some unidentified persons, who belonged to Bihar, spotted the wailing girl on the platform, took her to Mehasana in Gujarat and engaged her as a maid servant there.

However, after working there for about two months, she narrated her plight to a priest of a nearby temple, who took it up with an NGO Child Welfare Institution at Gandhi Nagar.

After being informed by the NGO, Gujarat Police swung into action and spoke to Nuapada SDPO about the girl. As Sunita's father Iswar Chouhan had not filed any complaint with the police about the missing girl, Singh gathered information about the family and also sought cooperation of Gujarat Police to send the girl home.

A team of Gujarat Police led by ASI Margrett Ben, Constable Pankaj Kumar and lady constable Madhi Ben travelled with the girl to Odisha and handed over the girl to her family members in the presence of police and local MLA.