Child found abandoned after blast reunited with mother

The one-and-a-half-year-old girl, who was found abandoned at Shitla Ghat in Varanasi after the blast on December 7, was today reunited with her mother who came from Balia in Bihar, police said.

The girl's father Nilesh Pandey is being questioned by police in Balia to determine if they had deliberately abandoned their daughter and then left the city, SP (city) Vijay Bhushan said.

The mother, Gita, told reporters here that her younger daughter was lost at the Ghat during the chaos in the aftermath of the blast.

According to police, the girl was identified as Gauri after her was picture published in newspapers and shown on TV channels.

The child's neighbours at Jawahar Nagar extension here told police that she was the daughter of one Gita and Nilesh Pandey alias Tuntun, who worked as a guard, and that they lived in a rented accommodation in the locality with their two daughters, the other being 11-year-old Riya.

Deputy district magistrate Atal Kumar Rai had told reporters yesterday that the room where the family lived was found locked and their landlord said that Nilesh had gone to Balia with his family the day the blast occurred.

Sister Linci, coordinator of Child Line, the children's home where the girl was being kept, had said that when they called up on Nilesh's mobile number given by the landlord, they were told by the respondent that his daughter had died and disconnected the phone, after which it was switched off.

While the girl has been handed over to Gita, Nilesh is being questioned in Balia, his hometown, on why they had left the city without trying to locate their lost daughter, Bhushan said.