Father abandons two daughters at cycle repair shop

Two sisters were found abandoned at a cycle puncture repair shop in Sector 56 on Monday after their father allegedly left him in the care of the shop owner and did not return to take them back.

Police on Wednesday launched a manhunt for the father of the girls, aged 11 and eight, who were sent to a child care institute in the city where they are undergoing counselling.

Police said the girls told the counsellors that they lived at Dasghara in northwest Delhi and their father had brought them to the city on a leisure trip. They had lost their mother four years ago and were looked after by their father who, the girls said, worked as a driver at a call centre.

Police said the father has been identified as Vishnu Kumar and his phone has been found to be switched off. “Kumar came to Gurugram in a car on Monday afternoon and left the two daughters at a cycle puncture shop in Sector 56, asking them to wait until he returned. He informed Itwari Lal, a resident of Palam Vihar who runs the shop, to take care of his daughters as he had to rush for some urgent work,” Vikram Singh, inspector, Palam Vihar police station, said.

After trying to trace the man with the help of information provided by the girls, the police formed four teams on Wednesday to look for him. Police said they also checked with Delhi Police and were told that no one had come to report two missing children in the area. Police said they got the father’s phone number from his elder daughter and are relying on his call detail records to locate their house.

“I kept waiting till 10pm on Monday. Then I wound up work and took the girls to Palam Vihar police station. Since I stay close by the station, I preferred taking them there. I was scared that police might take action against me for allowing them to wait at my shop,” Lal said. He told police that he did not know the man. He said the man pulled over outside his shop around noon and urged him to look after his daughters for a brief period.

Meena Kumari, a member of the child welfare committee, said the girls were traumatised and were crying. She said the girls told them that they could not help them with the location of their residence as they hardly stepped out since their mother’s death except for going to school.

“We are regularly counselling them, but they are scared. During a counselling session, they said they study in classes 5 and 4 in a government school in Delhi. Their father told them that he would take them around the city in his office car, but left them at a shop instead,” Kumari said.

First Published: Sep 20, 2018 03:42 IST