Girl reunited with parents after 22 years

KOLKATA: September 8 has been etched forever in Kumaresh Mukherjee's memory. On this day in 1990, his four-year-old daughter went missing. In a quirk of fate, he got news of her on that very date, exactly 22 years later. When he finally met her on Friday, he could hardly recognize his 'little girl'; she is now a married woman of 26.
Kumaresh has lost count of the number of times he and his wife Krishna made rounds of police stations, Lalbazar, the CID office, the chief minister's office and media houses over the last two decades.Their quest ended fruitlessly every time and the world around them crumbled, but they never lost hope. On Sunday, as Kumaresh stood at Sealdah court clutching on to his daughter's hand, the years of pain and frustration were replaced by tears of "happiness" and "relief".
The day on which Sangeeta went missing, she had accompanied Krishna to NRS Hospital. Krishna was unwell and a woman was constantly pushing her, she says. Before she could figure out what was happening, someone held a handkerchief to her nose and Krishna lost consciousness. Hours later, when she came around, her daughter had gone missing and so had the woman.
A complaint was first lodged with Entally police - and later, the detective department - but the child couldn't be traced. On October 9, 1990, police even tracked down the suspicious woman, Bharati. Based on her statements, three others - Sumitra Rakhshit, Ratan Kumar De and later Sanjib Dutta - were also arrested. But the girl wasn't found.
The incident gradually started taking a toll on the couple's life. Kumaresh left his job as a medical representative, for he never found time for it. They sold off their house in Barasat to settle down in Chetla because it would be easier to visit the police station. As the years passed by without any news, Krishna's health started failing, though the couple later had a son. Barely in her fifties now, she has been left confined to bed for the last two years by a neurotic disorder.
On the other hand, Sangeeta's fate took a peculiar turn. Harihar Mondal, a resident of Dhamua in South 24-Parganas, found the little girl weeping at that station. "She seemed lost. Her clothes didn't suggest that she was homeless and she could say that her name was Sangeeta and that she had gone missing from a 'doctor's clinic'," recalled Harihar, who took her home.
"She stayed with me for two months. But I still had four sisters to marry off. So I requested my married sister Sabita to bring her up," he said. Sabita agreed. Six years ago, they found a good match for Sangeeta. Married to Gopal Mondal, a zari worker, Sangeeta now lives in Amratola in South 24-Parganas.
Meanwhile, a letter to former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a couple of years ago spurred police to inform Kumaresh that investigations had thrown up no fresh leads about Sangeeta. "I moved Calcutta high court after that. I have spent my life's savings in my daughter's search. Last year, the court directed the CID to probe the matter and report within three months," said Kumaresh, who is now in his sixties.
This news was published by a Bengali daily with Sangeeta's photograph when she was a toddler. Someone told Harihar about this and he contacted Kumaresh. "I visited her in Amratola on Friday. She shares an uncanny resemblance with my lost daughter," smiled Kumaresh. A CID team went with him.He was accompanied by a CID team.
The court heard Sangeeta's statement on Sunday, said DIG (CID-Special) Shankarlal Chakraborty. "She will be produced in court on Tuesday when their statements will be recorded before a judicial magistrate. The same day, we will make a plea for a DNA test," he said.
And what does Sangeeta have to say about this 'miracle' in her life? "Till Friday, I never knew that I had been adopted. All this is happening so fast that I have had no time to think. No, I don't remember the past now," said the visibly tired woman.
For Krishna, however, it makes little difference that her daughter doesn't remember her. "She was a tad fairer when she went missing. She was studying in upper nursery. For me, it suffices that I will hear her call me 'Ma' again. What more can I ask for?" she wept.