7-Year-Old Mumbai Girl Went Missing And Was Found After 9 Years And 7 Months

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In a heart-rending incident in Mumbai on Thursday, the police found and reunited a seven-year-old girl, Pooja Gaud, with her mother and siblings who reside in Juhu Galli, nine and a half years after she went missing.

She was referred to as "Girl No. 166", as she was the last of the 166 girls to be found by the police, who went missing between the years 2008 and 2015.

The accused named Harry Joseph D'Souza has been detained by the Mumbai Police in connection with the crime. His wife Soni has not been detained as there is no one to look for their six-year-old daughter.

According to news reports, D'Souza, who is a 50-year-old man is the one behind the abduction of the girl. Reports say that he had lured the girl for ice cream and abducted her. The man believed that the girl was a solution to the couple's needs since they were childless.

Rajendra Dhondu Bhosle, an assistant sub-inspector of DN Nagar police station, Mumbai, was in charge of the case of 166 missing girls. When he retired, he handed the case to his team, who tracked down 165 girls, except for the last "Girl 166", whom he tried to find even after his retirement.

The case made progress after the couple's Mumbai apartment housekeeper began conversing with the girl. Later, the housekeeper made the decision to look into the 2013 missing person case and discovered multiple reports. With the help of phone numbers she found in one of the links, she found the girl's family neighbours and confirmed the missing.

With the help of Bhosle and local police inspectors, the girl was successfully reunited with her family. The girl was abducted on her way to school in 2013.

Excerpts from TOI