Missing woman from Panchmahal wakes up in Kolkata after 11 yrs in coma, contacts cops to reunite with family

The Panchmahal district police has stepped in to help the family travel to Kolkata to bring back Geeta to Bhamaiyya, where her children and extended family stay.

Inspector Pravin Ashoda said, “The family, along with a personnel of the district police, will travel by train to Kolkata on Thursday. The district administration has made arrangements for their travel on humanitarian grounds… They will bring back Geeta Baria to her village after completing formalities.”

The police said that on February 10, a doctor from Kolkata’s Pavlov Institute established contact with the Panchmahal district police control room and narrated the case of Geeta, who had woken up from coma and recalled details of her family.

Panchmahal SP Himnanshu Solanki told The Indian Express, “The hospital contacted the police and the police verified the details of the village and the family. When we could contact the family, the doctors had Geeta video call her family. They recognised each other…”
“Geeta had gone missing in 2013 while the family was attending a wedding. We are yet to ascertain how she landed in Kolkata and what happened during these years,” he added.

Geeta’s three children – Hitesh, Divya and Vipul – are teenagers and remember little of their mother. Her brother-in-law Balvant said, “The family searched for her for over two years but could not find her… Her husband continued to look for her for years and lost hope. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago. After his death, the children dropped out of school, as there was no one to support the family financially. The distant relatives have taken care of their daily needs but there was no one to pay their school fees.”

On Sunday, when Geeta spoke to her family over the video call, she recognised her sisters. Her sister Bhanumati said, “She recognised me. The children have grown up, so she was too numb to understand how they would have lived without her…”