Missing Antarvedi girl located in Karimnagar after seven years

 KARIMNAGAR: A girl who went missing along with her father in 2016 from her native place in Antarvedi in Sakinetipalli mandal under  BR Ambedkar Konaseema district (West Godavari) was finally located at Saidapur mandal of Karimnagar district. It ended up as a happy family reunion on Monday.

There was no clue about the whereabouts of the girl Aksha and her father Ravi all these seven years. The girl’s mother Dwaraka had lodged a complaint at the Sakinetipalli police station in 2016.

Police said one Bhagyalakshmi of Saidapur mandal took Aksha into her shelter a few months ago and was looking after her. The locals suspected that the girl was not a relative of Bhagyalakshmi and alerted the local police. The police stepped in, handed over the girl to the Bala Raksha Bhavan and started an investigation.

After seeing the photo of Aksha circulated on various social media platforms, two families from different regions approached the Bala Raksh Bhavan and claimed that Aksha was their child. Among these, one woman, Padma, who was the grandmother of Aksha, showed the police the photos of Aksha as a child by way of proof.

The police took the details of Aksha’s parents from her grandmother. Cops learned that Ravi Kumar, the father of Aksha,  took Aksha away from their house in 2016 following a quarrel with his wife. However, he lost the girl while he was travelling. Ravi did not go back to the house fearing that he would be blamed for the the loss of his daughter.

The police contacted Aksha’s mother Dwaraka and asked her to visit Karimnagar with all evidence. When Dwaraka came to Karimnagar to take possession of her daughter, her husband Ravi Kumar also reached the Bala Raksha Bhavan.

Dwaraka was so happy to see her daughter as also her husband after seven years tears of joy rolled out of her eyes, eyewitnesses said.

The officials of the Integrated Child Development Centre along with the police department handed over the child to her parents in the presence of district collector RV Karnan at the collector’s camp office. The girl’s parents expressed their thanks to the officials for restoring their daughter to them.

District welfare officer Sandhya Rani, chairperson of child welfare department Dhana Lakshmi, DCPO Shanta, project officer of Child Help Line 1098 Sampath and social worker Ramesh were present to share the joy of a happy family reunion.