Noida cops help missing girl reunite with family

An 11-year-old girl, who had gone missing last week and landed in a Noida shelter home, was reunited with her family in Greater Noida on Tuesday, police said.

According to police officials, an interaction session was organised at the shelter home in Sector 12/22.

“During the session, apart from her parents’ name, the girl told us her village’s name as Salarpur which falls under Sector 39 police jurisdiction. Her information was shared immediately with the authorities but no output came. When we asked for more information, she said that her brother studied in Dadri. We then used Google Maps to find another Salarpur in the Jarcha area,” said Devendra, inspector at the antihuman trafficking unit (AHTU) of the Noida police.

The officials then reached out to the village pradhan who confirmed that the girl had gone missing the previous week. No missing person report was registered at Jarcha police station, police said, adding that the girl’s maternal uncle confirmed her disappearance and told officials that she had left home following a fight and eventually got lost.

The officials said that the girl was handed over to the family after getting clearance from the child welfare committee.

This is the second such incident to occur in a week. On June 2, a 16-year-old speciallyabled boy, who was staying in the same shelter for nearly three months, got back to his family in the Sambhal district.

“The boy had said that he was from a village in Aligarh district. When we tried verifying the village location, it turned out to be in the Sambhal district. The boy’s photo was sent to the village head and the family came to Noida on June 2 to take him back,” said a police spokesperson.

The shelter home in Sector 12/22 has about 60 children, police said.

The officials said that the district police’s AHTU team organises frequent interaction sessions at shelter homes and helps such children reunite with their families.

“Sometimes missing children come directly to police and sometimes they reach shelter homes. Our AHTU team is trying to counsel many such children and help trace their families,” said Vrinda Shukla, deputy commissioner of police (women and child safety), who also heads the AHTU.