Brother and sister re-united after a decade and how!

BENGALURU: This is a story that has been transported from Bollywood, seems. Only, this is real - a lost and found saga involving compassion and humanity - of two siblings. On Tuesday, they met each other with the help of the Child Protection and Welfare Committee.

The siblings - elder brother

Manjunatha

and sister Bhagya - who were reunited after a decade had been separated when they lost their parents around 10-11 years back at Holenarasipura Taluk's

Malali

village from Karnataka's

Hassan

district.

The decade-old struggle

For some days, their maternal aunt took care of Manjunatha and Bhagya when they lost their parents. But when they became "burden to her family", she left them in front of Malali village temple. For three days, children stayed in the temple by eating prasadam. Later, the village teacher Gowdegowda took them home.

After two days, the teacher, Gowdegowda, thought the girl will be a burden to his family. Fortunately, one of the women from the village came forward and took the girl under her care.

After one month, the woman handed over the girl to the owner of Sakaleshpura's coffee estate.

After that the siblings never got any chance to meet for a decade. Manjunatha, who was told that his sister was missing, grew up in the house of Gowdegowda who treated him as his son while Bhagya suffered a lot in her owner's home, working on the estate.

Later, Bhagya became friends with school students. Fifteen days back, Bhagya escaped from the owner's house and reached Sakaleshpura. Confused as to where to go, some locals informed the Child Protection and Welfare Committee, whose officials brought her to the Child Welfare Home. Soon, they helped her find her brother, Manjunatha.

By this time, Manjunatha's caretaker Gowdegowda was already dead and his wife was not ready to let him go.

While Manjunatha - who is now 15-year-old; his sister Bhagya is 12-year-old - has said that he will take care of his sister; he can work and provide for her, the child protection officials are yet to decide "what next".

Meanwhile, the Sakaleshpura's coffee estate owner has registered a missing complaint about Bhagya. Recently, the estate owner deposited Rs 1 lakh in the co-operative bank to "escape the law".

Read this in Kannada:

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