‘‘We wanted to protect her from a city’s harsh environment and that’s why we left her to study back home in West Bengal,’’ says her father Anil Haldar. She was in Noida for just three months. ‘‘We didn’t know where to look in this city, what had happened to our beautiful daughter who we had always wanted to protect. Then we got a note stuck on our rickshaw saying she had eloped but we knew this could not be true. The note was in Hindi, a language Rimpa was not familiar with,’’ says her mother Dolly.

The police did not help. Instead, the Haldars were insulted. ‘‘We went to the police station at least three times after the missing complaint was filed on February 8. The police told us to go back, saying usko shahar ki hawa lag gayi thi and she has eloped,’’ Dolly says.

I don’t go to school anymore. Papa says they’ll kill me too

Ten-year-old Jyoti Lal was wise beyond her years, says brother Rakesh. So, when she went missing on June 20 last year, he was surprised. ‘‘We thought she was very smart. No one could fool her,’’ he says. According to the police she could be one of the victims. Until December 28, police wasn’t so responsive though. ‘‘I must have visited the police station a hundred times but they made fun of us,’’ says Jyoti’s father Jhabbu Lal, a dhobi in Sector 31. Only after skeletons were discovered did the police lodge an FIR. But Lal fears it’s too late. He’s found pieces of her clothes at the police station. Such his fear now that he’s withdrawn all his five children, except his son, from school. ‘‘Papa says they’ll kill me too so I don’t go to school anymore,’’ says Jyoti’s nine-year-old sister Bharti (above).

... contd.