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Indian girl repatriated from Pakistan reunited with family

Geeta, now 29, returned to her home in Parbhani in Maharashtra, after a frantic search of over five years since Swaraj ensured her repatriation to India.

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A deaf-mute Indian girl, who had strayed into Pakistan some 20 years ago and was repatriated in 2015 by the then Indian minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj, was finally reunited with her family last week.

Geeta, now 29, returned to her home in Parbhani in Maharashtra, after a frantic search of over five years since Swaraj ensured her repatriation to India.

Dr Anand Selgaokar of Pahal Foundation, an NGO, said Geeta was handed over to the Anand Services Society, another Indore-based NGO, on July 20, 2020. Gyanendra Purohit of the Anand Services Society first came to Parbhani in December last year to check facts.

The search in the last five years involved screening process of at least a dozen families from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Rajasthan after claims that they were Geeta’s blood relations.

Purohit said the search led the NGO to Meena Waghmare, 71, who lived in Jintur in Parbhani district, when her daughter Radha (Geeta) went missing.

Gyanendra Purohit chanced upon a tiny clue — Geeta’s nose was pierced on the right side, common in the Marathwada region, instead of the usual left practised across India — and launched the search which ended in Parbhani.

Purohit also said: “Meena told us that her daughter has a burn mark on her stomach and when we checked, it turned out to be true.”

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