Floods, a Kashmiri family, a 5-year-old girl from Mumbai, and a happy ending

“She is missing her family,” said Dilshada Bano, wife of Abdul Rashid Sheikh, adding that she has taken care of Megha like her own daughter Nifya. “During the initial days, she refused to eat food but now she is better. We are treating her like a family member,” she added.

To keep Megha occupied and happy, the Sheikhs have even taught her how to play games on Nifya’s iPad. But what has worried the family and police are Megha’s replies to questions about how she reached Kashmir.

Sitting with Nifya inside Sheikh’s home, Megha told The Indian Express in Hindi that she was brought to Kashmir on a train by a person she called Nazir who “took me to Sopore, Ashmuqam and Anantnag where he would beg for money from people.” \”He even cut my hair,” she said.

“He (Nazir) kidnaps small children from Mumbai. I went to Uttar Pradesh, Nizamuddin in Delhi, Jammu and then Kashmir,” she said, adding that Nazir didn’t give her food for days. Recalling her days in Mumbai, Megha said that her father “used to beat my mother after drinking alcohol.” “I miss my mother so much and I want to go back to my home now,” she said.

The Sheikhs initially informed the local Nehru Park police station about the child. “They told us to visit the Ram Munshi Bagh police station. But there, they refused to accept the child, saying that this station is only meant for women,” Dilshada Bano said.

Masood Rashid, Station House Officer (SHO) at Nehru Park, said that it was they who alerted police in Mumbai.

According to Rakesh Maria, Police Commissioner, Mumbai, “We got the information (from police in Srinagar) and the missing persons bureau was put into action. In two hours, the details were matched. The family lives in Nirmal Nagar and had registered her as missing a year ago. The family is now being taken to Kashmir by our team which will ensure they are reunited with the child.”

According to Vasant Dhoble, ACP in Mumbai police’s Missing Persons Bureau, they found at least 13 Meghas initially and the search was narrowed down only because the child could remember where she lived. “Nirmal Nagar is a huge slum pocket. We sent teams to track her hut and they showed people prints of her photograph doing the rounds in social media. They confirmed the identity of the girl,” said Dhoble.

Police records have identified Megha’s father as Shardaprasad Chaudhury and her mother as Seema. According to them, Megha was walking with her mother when she asked Seema to get her something to eat from a roadside eatery. “Her mother paid for the food and had begun walking. When she turned back after a minute, the child was gone. This was in June 2013.”

In fact, it was a member of the Sheikh family, Parvaiz, a tour operator, who first posted Megha’s photo on Facebook.

Bashir Ahmad, Abdul Rashid Sheikh’s brother, said that the family is doing everything to keep Megha happy. “In the evenings when we watch the news, she comes and wants to switch the channel to Cartoon Network. We immediately change the channel so that she can watch the Doremon cartoons,” he said.

”She is just like my daughter and my only worry is that she should reach her parents,” Bano said. And till that happens, Megha seems happy where she is. “Aunty (Bano) is treating her like her own daughter and tries to keep me happy all the time. They give me chocolates too, I am happy here.”

— With ENS inputs, Mumbai