She disappeared from her school in Mumbai on January 22, 2013 at the age of seven. Little Pooja Gaud was kidnapped that day by a couple who lured her with an ice cream cone. According to reports from the Mumbai police, the girl was kidnapped by Harry D’Souza and his wife Soni, both of whom wanted children, and the two were arrested. After 9 years, the girl, now sixteen, was found on August 4 thanks to what her mother described as a “miraculous escape.”
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Pooja Gaud returns home after 9 years
Pooja Guad, the missing child, now 16, was living with her two brothers and parents in a small house on the outskirts of Mumbai at the time of the kidnapping. On the day of the kidnapping, Pooja was on her way to school with her older brother. At that moment, the little girl, left alone, was most likely approached by the couple. According to the victim, the couple had taken her to Goa in western India and then to Karnataka in the south of the country. The 16-year-old said she remembered that on the day of the kidnapping, feeling disoriented, she started crying after a few minutes, but the two kidnappers threatened her that if she cried or drew attention, they would hurt her pulled.
She was allowed to attend school for a short time, but when the couple had a child shortly after, the makeshift family returned to Mumbai, and then a series of abuses began: belts, they kicked me, they beat me. Once they beat me with a rolling pin so hard that my back started bleeding. I was also forced to work at home for up to 12 hours a day». The house where the D’Souza lived was also very close to that of the real family, Pooja, but the girl didn’t know the streets, was constantly monitored and therefore had no money or phone it was impossible for her to ask for help.
9 या 9 वर्षांमध्ये काय घडलं? हा
व्हीडिओ नक्की पाहा. #PoojaGaud #missing girl @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @jdipali @MPLodha @Maha_MahilaAyog pic.twitter.com/O2EUeVKOxz– BBC News Marathi (@bbcnewsmarathi) August 17, 2022
The Escape and the Homecoming
One day, the kidnapped young woman manages to get her hands on one of the couple’s cell phones while they are sleeping. Pooja typed his name into YouTube and found videos and posters mentioning his kidnapping and the numbers he could call for help. However, the 16-year-old is terrified that her captors would discover her and it takes her seven months to find the courage before rescuing Pramila Devendra, 35, a domestic worker who worked in the house where Pooja was allowed to work A babysitter asks for help.
The woman then called one of the numbers shown on the girl’s research posters. A cell phone belonging to Rafiq, the neighbor of Pooja’s mother’s house, who managed to organize the miraculous escape. After returning home, the young woman’s family went to the police to file a complaint against the kidnapping couple.
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