Tandra Guha takes baby Sundari home on Thursday. Picture by Aranya Sen

A ‘mother’ carrying a bundle of joy and an abandoned baby girl finally headed ‘home’ made for a picture-perfect end to a custody tale with twists and turns.

Tandra Guha was allowed to take Sundari from the four-and-a-half-month-old’s cot at Medical College and Hospital to her Baguiati residence on Thursday evening, following Calcutta High Court’s intervention.

Sundari, found abandoned beside a garbage vat in the Bowbazar area early on November 20, 2003, had been taken to the hospital by a local sub-inspector. She was looked after by the hospital staff ever since.

Arup Kumar Das, principal judge of the family court, on April 5 granted the appeal of Tandra Guha, who had lost her husband and her teenaged son within a few years.

The judge had earlier turned down the appeal of Kajal Saha, an employee of the hospital, who had also applied for Sundari’s custody, on financial grounds.

When Guha went to bring Sundari home on April 6, the family court judge said he had reversed his order on the basis of a plea by some Group-D staff members of the hospital. The Group-D employees did not want Sundari to go to an “outsider”.

Supradip Ray, lawyer appearing on behalf of Guha, then filed a habeas corpus petition demanding custody of the child.

The high court division bench, comprising Nur Alam Chowdhury and Arun Kumar Bhattacharya, set aside the revision of the family court’s judgment, thus upholding Guha’s rights over the child.

Family court principal judge Das then directed Pranab Mukherjee, social welfare officer, Medical College and Hospital, to hand Sundari over to Guha.

On Thursday evening, nurses and doctors thronged the paediatric medicine ward of the hospital. “It is difficult for us to bid her goodbye,” said one of the nurses, slipping a yellow dress on Sundari for the last time.

“But it is good that Sundari has finally found a home,” said A. Biswas, deputy superintendent of the hospital.

Guha, with Sundari cradled in her arms, couldn’t stop smiling.