Rescued Mumbai girl was forced into begging, starved by abductor

ldquoAb tumhara naam Megha nahi Salima hai aur agar tumne bolne ki ya bhaagne ki koshish ki toh main tumhara haath aur pair chaaku se kaat dungardquo Your name is not Megha anymore itrsquos Salima and if you try to escape or talk to anyone Irsquoll chop off your hands and legsAlso read I will never eat ragda pattice outside again says lost and found childMegha with her mother in blue grandmother in saree and a neighbour after their reunion on Wednesday PicSuresh KKThis sevenyearold Megha has told her family is how her abductor and tormentor Nasir would threaten her if she refused to beg or do anything else that he asked her to So traumatised is Megha by her yearlong disappearance during which she was taken to various cities forced into begging and treated like a slave that she begins to shiver if Nasirrsquos name is even mentionedThe sevenyearold had gone missing from Bandra East in June last year and was found by Abdul Rashid Shaikh in Srinagar After looking for Megha for over a year in five states her family was finally reunited with her on WednesdaySordid taleIn the 48odd hours Megha has spent with her mother Seema and grandparents Ramesh Thakur and Tara she has told them details that have left them in tears Megha told them that on the morning of June 5 2013 as she walked with her mother towards Naupada she insisted on having ragda pattice from a roadside vendormiddayrsquos reports on Wednesday and ThursdayAs she was about to approach the vendor a man believed to be Nasir with long hair and beard approached her and asked her if she wanted chocolates When she said yes he gave her a chocolate and promised to give her more if she accompanied himNasir then put a cloth on Megharsquos mouth to make her lose consciousness and took her towards the railway tracks near Bandra Terminus When she regained her senses Megha said she found herself on a moving trainWhen she would cry out for her mother Nasir would give her a chocolate and explain to their copassengers that her mother had missed the train They got off at Gorakhpur station in UP and two more children a boy and a girl of her age joined them She remembers that the boy was called RaeezMegha said that Nasir would instruct all three children to walk with him when he went out for begging with a strict warning against opening their mouths They were given torn clothes to wear and made to walk barefoot for hoursThey would sleep on the footpath and go without food for days getting stale bread and other stale food once in a while while Nasir himself ate heartily every day Megha remembers being taken to Uttar Pradesh Guwahati and Delhi before landing up in Jammu and KashmirMegha told her family that when they reached Delhi Nasir took them to a woman with whom he had an altercation He even assaulted the woman with a knife in a fit of rageWhile Megha was left with the woman who ran a begging racket Raeez and the other girl were taken to some other location and Megha never heard from them again Nasir retuned some time later and took Megha to Jammu He made her beg there for a few months before heading to SrinagarAbandonedMegha did not know it then but the floods in Kashmir would prove to be a blessing in disguise for her In midSeptember Nasir decided to flee and left Megha to fend for herself While the waters swirled around her Megha climbed the dome of a dargah to keep herself from drowningOn October 2 she was spotted by Abdul Rashid Shaikh who took her home and took care of her A relative of Shaikh put up a Facebook post about Megha which was spotted by this midday reporter and the little girl was finally reunited with her family in Mumbai over a year after she went missingFuture beckonsMegharsquos grandfather Ramesh Thakur said ldquoWe have decided to send her to school after Diwali It will take some time for her to leave her trauma behind and speak freely about what had happened We are not pressuring her and are not asking her too many questionsrdquoAssistant Commissioner of Police Missing Persons Bureau Vasant Dhoble who had travelled with Thakur to Srinagar to get Megha back said ldquoI have asked the local police to send a woman officer to get information from Megha about the suspect Also in case Megha needs a counsellor we will provide onerdquoDr Harish Shetty a child psychiatrist said ldquoShe should be handed over to a mental health professional for a month so that she can recall her repressed memories and the truth of her absence can be ascertained The trauma she has undergone will need sensitive handlingrdquoWaiting for a callMembers of the Shaikh family in Dal Gate who took Megha in and looked after her as their own meanwhile were anxiously waiting for Megha to call them after she left for Mumbai on Wednesday Whenever the phone would ring on Thursday they would rush to answer thinking Megha was callingAlso read midday helps reunite missing 7yearold girl with her parentsldquoMy daughters Suriya and Naziya would sleep with Megha in the same room every night and they had got so attached to her that they are finding it hard to get sleep since she leftrdquo said Abdul Rashid ShaikhSpeaking to midday Suriya said ldquoShe is like my sister and she had grown very close to us We wanted to talk to her desperatelyrdquoThe family finally spoke to Megha on Thursday evening ldquoIt was an exciting moment We were all happy to learn that Megha had reached her parents safely and that she is happy We will be in touch with her over the phone and we also plan to visit her in Mumbai soonrdquo said Shaikh