Manishka with her mother Reena at the GRP office in Patna Junction on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 15: Two-year-old Manishka was reunited with her parents, Manoj and Reena Kharbanda, today at Patna Junction. She had spent the night with a woman police constable at the rail- way station.

Government Railway Police (GRP) yesterday rescued the girl kidnapped by the maidservant of the Delhi-based family. Manoj works in a power firm and Reena in a steel plant. They live at Rohini in the national capital.

Sources said the parents had taken the first morning flight from Indira Gandhi Domestic Airport. They arrived at the state capital at 8.30am and reached Patna Junction at 9.30am.

As soon as Reena entered the GRP office, she asked: “Where is my daughter? She must be hungry. Kindly tell me where she is.”

On hearing her mother’s voice, Manishka started to cry. Reena rushed to the room where her daughter had spent the night. She took Manishka in her lap, hugged her and broke down into tears.

Manoj, too, was very emotional to see his daughter after nearly 36 hours.

Reena told her daughter: “I love you. I will never leave you alone. We really missed you.” Then, she made Manishka wear clean clothes they had brought from home.

Last evening, GRP personnel had nabbed the maid, Mamta, with the baby when Brahmaputra Express, which she had boarded in Delhi, was crossing Patna Junction. The GRP had deployed policemen at all the platforms of the station after receiving information about the abduction from deputy commissioner of police (outer district) Rajesh Dev.

Patna railway superintendent of police (SP) Suresh Choudhary said: “After primary investigations, it seems she (Mamta) is a professional kidnapper, who took the baby with the motive of selling her off.”

Reena told The Telegraph: “We could not sleep the whole night. We just kept thinking about our daughter. We wanted to reach Patna as soon as possible. I never imagined that our maidservant would kidnap her. I think we made a mistake by hiring her from an agency. We did not conduct a background check because that is supposed to be done by the agency. I did suspect her when I saw her chewing gutkha and paan masala but I did not take that seriously.”

Asked about the incident, she said: “Usually, I return home by 4:30pm, but I got delayed by half-an-hour on that day. When I came home, I did not find my daughter. My in-laws were at home. They said the maid had taken her to the terrace for a walk. I later realised that the maid had run away my daughter. Then, we contacted the police.”

Mamta had kidnapped Manishka on September 13.

GRP inspector Ram Pukar Singh said: “The maidservant will be taken to Delhi for further investigation by the police of the national capital, who have accompanied the parents of Manishka. As far as our job is concerned, we have handed over the baby to her parents. It was really a challenge for the railway police to rescue the girl. But teamwork led to results.”

Manishka and her parents returned to Delhi tonight in a GoAir flight that they boarded at 7pm. Before leaving for Delhi, Manoj said: “I will never again hire a maid from a private agency.” He added that neither he nor his wife had any idea why Mamta had stolen their daughter.