Sisters reunite with father after 8 years

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 6

Two teenaged sisters from West Bengal, who had been missing for the past eight years, reunited with their father today due to the efforts of a Haryana policeman, who went an extra mile to find their families.

For the past five years, the girls had been staying at Bal Sadan here, a home for orphaned and destitute women and children.

ASI Rajesh Kumar of the anti-human trafficking unit of the Haryana Police, who often visited Bal Sadan for his work, had counselled the two sisters in September 2018 for the first time. When he initiated a dialogue with them, the sisters revealed that their parents were separated in 2012. Then, their paternal aunt (bua) had brought them to Chandigarh on the pretext of providing them with good education, but forced them to work as domestic help in bungalows.

This went on for a few years before they were rescued by the UT police and sent to Bal Sadan in Panchkula.

The ASI said: “After my first conversation with the two sisters, I came to know that they hailed from Lankapara in Alipurduar district. When I contacted an NGO in West Bengal, I got to know that the girls’ grandmother still lived in their house. When the NGO tried to reach their grandmother again in March 2019, she had passed away.”

“It was a setback, but I was determined. I then decided to contact an NGO in Meghalaya. I shared the photos of these girls with the NGO. Their team found the sisters’ paternal aunt (chachi). We then got to know that their father worked in Himachal Pradesh,” said the ASI.

Their father identified them through a video call. After all formalities were completed, the father reached Panchkula today and met his daughters.