MP: Fresh search for family of deaf-mute woman who returned from Pakistan

INDORE: An NGO which is taking care of Gita, a deaf and mute woman who returned from Pakistan five years ago, said on Friday that they suspect that her long-lost family hailed from the Maharashtra-Telangana border region.

Efforts to find her family have borne no fruit since Gita's return in 2015, but an official of the Anand Service Society, a local NGO, said they will conduct a fresh search.

"During communication with her we have got some vital clues about her geographical background. They indicate the region around Nanded in Maharashtra and (neighbouring) Telangana," said Gyanendra Purohit, the society's director and a sign-language expert.

"We will take her to these areas to find her family from whom she had separated about two decades ago," he said.

"We believe that her family could be Telugu-speaking," he said, adding that Nanded in Maharashtra has Telugu-speakers due to its proximity to Telangana.

So far, more than ten families from various parts of the country have claimed that Gita was their missing daughter, but none of them could substantiate the claim.

Gita, who is now around 30, is believed to have boarded the wrong train when she was around 10 years old and ended up in Lahore onboard Samjhouta Express.

With special efforts by then external affairs minister late Sushma Swaraj, she was brought back to India in October 2015.