Delhi Police reunites disabled woman with family after 37-day search

Delhi Police has reunited a 21-year-old intellectually-challenged woman from Madhya Pradesh, who was found abandoned in a pregnant state in Shahdara last month, with her family after a 37-day search, officials said on Saturday.

The woman undergoing treatment at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) since early September was handed over to her family on October 7, they said.

“On September 1, a PCR call was received at the Seemapuri police station about an abandoned, pregnant woman spotted wandering in the area.

“She was taken to the GTB Hospital for medical examination and later produced before a local court, which ordered her admission to IHBAS for mental health evaluation and care,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara), Prashant Gautam, said.

After her admission to IHBAS, a team was formed to trace her family, and head constable Ankush was sent to her native village Ranikhera in Madhya Pradesh. However, police didn’t find any clue about her family initially, the DCP said.

Her details and photograph were then published in two newspapers to help locate her family, the officer said.

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During her stay at IHBAS, the woman delivered a premature baby girl on September 7, who died during treatment at the SDN Hospital, the DCP said.

In renewed efforts to reunite the woman with her family, the police team from Seemapuri, including head constable Ankush and constable Raj, revisited Madhya Pradesh.

This time, locals in the Bageshwar Dham area identified the woman. Police then put up posters of the woman, and her family members were eventually traced, the DCP said.

The family members were produced before a Delhi court, which praised police for handling the case “sensitively” and “successfully”, officials said.