Sushma Swaraj Promises To Reunite Geeta With Her Parents

Indore: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has assured Geeta, the hearing and speech impaired girl who returned to India in October this year after being stranded in Pakistan for over a decade, that the government is trying hard to locate the whereabouts of her parents.

Geeta, who returned to India on October 26 after inadvertently crossing into Pakistan over a decade ago, is staying in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district at a facility of a hearing and speech impaired institute run by a local NGO.

Yesterday, Ms Swaraj had met the girl.

"Sushma called Geeta to a hotel here last night. As soon as the girl reached Sushma's place, the overwhelmed Minister hugged her. In a 30-minute meeting, the Minister assured the girl that the government is employing all possible means to trace her parents to re-unite her with them," the institute's sign language department head Monika Punjabi Verma said today.

Geeta showed Ms Swaraj a cloth which she had knitted after which the minister admired her talent, the sign language expert added.

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On December 18, the minister had tweeted Geeta's photographs snapped during days when she got separated from her parents, mentioning some of her birth marks, in an apparent attempt to reach her parents.

Yesterday, a 40-year-old woman from Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh claimed herself to be mother of Geeta.

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The woman, Aneesa Bi gave an application seeking permission to meet Geeta by describing her as her daughter, Najjo. According to her, she had disappeared from Gotegaon in Narsinghpur district about 13 years back. The woman also submitted a passport size photograph of her lost girl, said senior local official, Ashish Singh.

He said Aneesa's application was forwarded to Social Justice Department.

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The officer recalled receipt of four similar applications in the past staking claim for Geeta and sought permission to meet her. "These (applications) too were forwarded to Centre," he said.

Earlier, in November, a (Mahato) family from Bihar had come forward claiming that Geeta was their daughter after she felt that they were her parents. However, DNA tests conducted on her proved otherwise.

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Mr Mahato claimed Geeta was his first child and her name was Heera who was lost in a fair in 2004. Geeta had failed to recognise the Mahato family after arriving here though after seeing their photographs had earlier identified them.