Mumbai:
A 10-year-old was found lying on a deserted footpath in Mumbai, in a semi-conscious state, near the Juhu aerodrome in Santacruz (West) on Monday afternoon.
Her disheveled appearance, broken teeth, the permanent furrows on her forehead, all suggested that she had been the victim of severe mental trauma in the recent past.
Clad in a soiled beige kurta pyjama and sobbing inconsolably, the girl repeatedly asked to be reunited with her family. "Mala ithun gehun chala ghari (Someone take me home)," she said.
After witnesses fed her some water and snacks, she summoned up enough strength to speak a few sentences about herself.
Identifying herself as Purnima, the girl did not remember much about herself, apart from the fact that she was a resident of Vashi where she lived with her grandmother and widowed mother.
Her loud sobs frequently robbed her of her breath, and she repeatedly flailed her arms. Helpers could not elicit any more information from her, like her last name, or her address.
Witnesses who had gathered around her revealed that she had been noticed getting off a rickshaw earlier in the day, after which she had collapsed on the pavement.
A policeman was summoned from a nearby beat chowki, and Purnima was driven to the Santacruz Police Station, where she was handed over to the officer on duty, PSI Bhaskar Pawar. A lady constable was summoned to take care of the child.
As cops contemplated handing her over to a childcare centre for temporary shelter, they managed to trace her mother in Vashi, and informed her that her child had been found.
PSI Pawar said, "It is curious that Purnima's mother did not lodge any missing person's complaint for her daughter. We will ask her if she knows anything about the events that led her daughter to such a deplorable condition. I'm sure we will unearth more details."