Google Maps reunites father with daughter after 4 months

Google Maps helped police reunite a father with his 12-year-old daughter who had gone missing over four months ago in Delhi, officials said.

The girl had taken an e-rickshaw near the Kirti Nagar furniture market in Holi on March 21, according to the police.

When the minor did not get down at the metro station, the e-rickshaw driver asked her where she wanted to go, but she did not give any reply. He took her to the Kirti Nagar police station at 8.33 pm, a senior officer said.

During an initial inquiry, the girl could not remember her house and just said she was from "Khurja" village and her father's name was Jeetan, the officer said.

Police searched Khajuri Khas and Khureji areas of Delhi since their names are similar to the word 'Khurja', but could not find any records of missing complaints being filed. They took the girl to the nearby JJ colony, but no one could identify her.

The girl, who is mentally-challenged, also said that she had travelled to Delhi by a train a couple of days ago with an uncle named 'Pintu'. He took off her clothes in the train's washroom and left her there when she started crying, police said.

On March 22, her medical examination was conducted and no sign of sexual assault was found. A case was registered under Section 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the POCSO acts. She was handed over to an NGO named Nirmal Chhaya, the police said.

The 12-year-old was taken to Khurja village in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district by a police team on four different occasions, but they did not get any clue about her family, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Monika Bhardwaj said.

"We kept trying to trace her family but could not get any lead. She was not being able to say the name of her village properly," Bhardwaj said. "The police team had gone to Khurja several times, but no one could recognise her there."
Jeetan, who works at a scrap factory in Delhi, said his wife, who lives at her parent's house in Sonbarsa, was mentally-challenged and she had also gone to some random place around one-and-a-half years ago, according to the police. "Around three-four months later, she was traced in Ludhiana, Punjab. Similarly, he thought that police will find his daughter also."