All I could see was a vision of my daughter: Anmod Ghat rescuer

PANAJI: Nearly six years ago on May 14, 2013, Bonaventure D’Souza lived out the greatest adventure of his life that set rolling the wheels of justice for two young children whom he rescued from Anmod Ghat after they were left for dead.
“It was something like 5:15 in the morning and I was returning after dropping my wife at Belgaum. I was tired. My driver was at the wheel when suddenly I saw a naked girl child walking at the side of the road,” recalls D’Souza.
“I asked my driver to double check.All I could see was a vision of my daughter. I had to do something then,” he says.
Six years later, when the children’s court pronounced its judgment on Thursday, the wheels had come full circle for D’Souza, who rescued these children from the Goa-Karnataka border.
“There were two other people at the side of the road. I asked them if they had seen a little naked girl just now. They said ‘yes’… but their theory was that it was an evil spirit in the guise of a child,” he says.
But D’Souza made his decision to rescue the child.
“She kept repeating ‘patrao ne mar ke pheka’ (boss killed and dumped). But neither my driver nor I were able to capture the actual gravity of this statement.”
A kilometre later she asked him to stop the car and showed him where she had been dumped.
“It was a deep valley, but the child had got lucky. At the place where she was thrown a lot of garbage bags had been thrown. So, instead of falling into the deep valley, she was cushioned by the garbage bags over which she easily climbed onto the road,” says the Navelim resident, who works at the front office of a resort in South Goa.
D’Souza recalls how she kept saying ‘bhai ko pheka’ and nearly 2km later they found a boy, also naked.
“His neck was held to one side at an awkward angle,” D’Souza recounts how the child just hugged him.
“And then I knew I had to call police,” says D’Souza, who knew then that this was something “major”.What followed was a flurry of police procedures. “When we reached the Mollem outpost, four police jeeps were ready and waiting. The children were taken to hospital and I returned, on the request of police, to point out the spots. By 7am my statement was recorded and by 8am the accused were arrested.”
Today, he is not only applauding the judiciary, but also the system that took care of the children for all these years and kept them safe.
So many people are given the opportunity to help others, but not many do so, says D’Souza, who is till date thankful he took the chance.
“I believe that the mother in her dying moment must have prayed to god to take her life, but to save the lives of her children.”