Entry of 'outsiders' banned in institute housing Geeta

Indore/New Delhi: The premises where Geeta, the speech and hearing-impaired Indian woman who returned from Pakistan after spending 15 years there, is staying has been made out of bounds for "unauthorised" persons for security reasons.

She has been kept here at an institution for hearing-impaired people after her arrival in the city early this week.

According to an official release issued on Friday, District Collector P Narhari has banned entry of "outsiders" and unauthorised persons into the institution's premises in Gumastha Nagar to ensure Geeta's security.

Those violating this order will face legal action, the release warned.

Geeta will be kept in the institution till her "real family" was found.

Meanwhile, report of the DNA tests carried out to determine the parentage of Geeta has been submitted to the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Ministry had asked AIIMS to collect samples for DNA tests to confirm if Janardhan Mahato, who claims that Geeta is his first born Heera, is indeed her father.

"The DNA tests were carried out at the AIIMS Forensic lab, the report of which was submitted to MEA on Thursday evening," a senior doctor at AIIMS said. The AIIMS authorities, however, refused to divulge details about the report.

When contacted, the MEA spokesperson said he did not know what was in the report.

Geeta, who returned from Pakistan after more than a decade, had refused to recognise the Mahato couple from Bihar whom she had identified as her family through photographs when she was in Karachi. She is currently staying at an institution in Indore for hearing-impaired people.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had stated that Geeta had refused to identify the Mahatos as her family.

"If the DNA samples does not match with the samples of the Mahato couple, then government will start afresh the process to find her parents," she had said.

Geeta, now 23, was reportedly just 7 or 8 years old when she was found sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express by the Pakistan Rangers 15 years ago at the Lahore railway station. She was adopted by the Edhi Foundation's Bilquis Edhi and lived with her in Karachi. Bilquis and her grandchildren, Saba and Saad Edhi, accompanied Geeta to New Delhi.

Her story came to light after the release of Salman Khan starrer 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' in which the hero unites a girl separated from her Pakistani mother who was visiting India.