"I couldn't believe it was the same girl' says man who found the minor

"I couldn't believe it was the same girl' says man who found the minor
Preetu Nair , TNN

PANAJI: When he offered some eatables to a little girl standing outside his shop last Saturday, Umesh Dhavaskar, 49, did not realize he had known
her before or that he was going to be instrumental in saving the girl from an unimaginable horror.

"I just couldn't believe this was the same girl I had known for the last three years. The girl I had known was pretty and chirpy, the one I was seeing now, after a gap of almost six months was sad, thin and without the charm she had," says Dhavaskar, who runs a modest restaurant in Mapusa near the bus stand.

"Last Saturday at about 9 am I saw a small girl standing outside my shop. I thought she was waiting for someone. An hour later, I noticed her again. When I approached her and asked her if she was waiting for someone, she got emotional and said, I am hungry'," recalls Dhavaskar, who then offered her some snacks.

While the girl was eating, an elderly motorcycle pilot Datta Salgaonkar walked into the restaurant and recognised her. "When he told me that this was the same girl who would walk into my restaurant often with her mother, smiling, cheerful and full of life, I was shocked. She looked so different. The girl I knew had thick hair, beautiful features and was healthy. But the girl who sat in front of me was lean, with very short hair and appeared disillusioned with life," said Dhavaskar.

Dhavaskar had no knowledge of the girl's injuries at that time. It was only after the girl spilled her tale of woes to Salgaonkar and his wife that this came to be known. "I was shocked when I heard her story and saw her wounds. I have three young daughters. I just couldn't believe that a human being can treat a child like this," he said.

He added, "I called the police and said, Here is a girl in dismay standing in my shop. If you can help, do help her'." The Mapusa police came within 15 minutes to help the minor, he added.

People in the vicinity knew the child and her mother, who worked as a daily wage worker at construction sites. They allege that the mother was an alcoholic and would often beat the minor. Incidentally, the minor's mother, who couldn't be traced, returned to Goa on Thursday and the police recorded her statement on Thursday.

"The mother said she had come from Gadak to meet her daughter as she was in the hospital. She also said that she was aware that her daughter was working as a domestic help at the Pednekar residence at Porvorim," says Dhavaskar.

1 August 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition