Mowgli girl’s grandfather identifies 'missing' granddaughter; wants to take her home

The family of the girl denies reports of her being raised by monkeys in a forest in Uttar Pradesh.

Lucknow, April 10: Finally, it looks like the 'Mowgli girl' is heading back to her parents' house. The grandfather of the 9-year-old girl has identified his grandchild after seeing reports related to her on television and newspapers.

The girl, according to a report by The Telegraph is from Kamlapur village in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, 285km south of the forests where she was found on January 20 this year. The grandfather said she went missing last year.

Hamid Ali Shah, the girl's grandfather, told The Telegraph on Sunday, "She had disappeared from home on March 28 last year. I've no idea where she was all these days and how she reached the forest in Bahraich."

Hamid and the girl's uncle Bhullar Shah came to Bahraich on Sunday to seek her custody. The authorities have asked them to go to Lucknow orphanage where the government had shifted her on Saturday.

The news of 'Mowgli girl', was reported extensively, even by foreign media last week, after doctors at Bahraich district hospital said the girl was 'brought up by monkeys', leading to her being dubbed 'Mowgli Girl'.

Earlier, a group of forest officials rescued the girl in the Motipur Range at the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary playing with a troop of monkeys. Reports said that she had injury marks on her body when she was rescued. The doctors, who treated her at the hospital, said that she showed a lot of behaviour akin to monkeys. The doctors added that she crawled on the floor and made screeching sounds like apes.

The doctors told reporters that she was raised by monkeys. However, later forest officials denied those reports. "She was falsely dubbed as a girl reared by monkeys. I heard doctors and senior government officials on television comparing her with animals. They tried to simplify the case to shrug off their responsibility to identify the child," Hamid said.

He said the girl was one of his son's six daughters. Her father, who also has a son, works in Delhi.

"We had registered a missing person case at the local Mungra Badshahpur police station the day (the girl) disappeared," Hamid said. "She would have returned home long before had people in responsible posts shown some honesty and sincerity."

The authorities at the Bahraich district hospital told the media that the documents shown by Hamid, such as her birth certificate and pictures, appeared authentic.

OneIndia News