Rashmi Rajput for Mumbai Mirror

• The houseboy took the girl from school on October 9, telling the teacher there was an emergency at home

Mumbai, Oct 30: A 30-year-old woman lies in a critical condition at Satyam Hospital in Kharghar after her 7-year-old daughter went missing more than a fortnight ago.

7-year-old Seema

Anuradha, mother of Seema, was admitted to the hospital after she fainted hearing news of her daughter’s alleged kidnapping by their servant Sudhir.

On October 9 when Seema did not return home from her school, Saraswati Vidya Mandir, in Kharghar, at her usual time of 3 pm, her parents got worried. They went searching for her to school. There they learnt that their servant Sudhir Pandey had picked Seema at around 2.30 pm. He told her teacher that there was a family emergency and therefore needed to take Seema home immediately. As he had taken Seema home on earlier occasions, the teacher did not doubt his intentions, her father Rajesh said.

Sudhir Pandey, the alleged kidnapper

“It was the school authority who informed us that Sudhir picked Seema at 2.30 pm, stating there was a family emergency. We were shocked. Initially we thought he might have taken our daughter to a store but when she didn’t return till evening, we got worried. The next day we registered a case with the Kalamboli police station,” said Rajesh.

Along with the police, Rajesh went to all the places where Sudhir used to go. “Every month he used visit Bhagwan Shaadi Hall in Kurla. When I went there, the manager threatened me and told me never to visit the place or he would kill me,” added Rajesh with tears in his eyes.

Rajesh, Seema's father

According to Rajesh, Sudhir used to work as a busboy in a canteen owned by him at Kharghar for the past eight months. Earning the family’s confidence, he had also visited Rajesh’s native place in Uttar Pradesh a few months back and stayed with his brother.

“As Sudhir had made losses in his vegetable business he had approached me for a job. I hired him as a busboy,” said Rajesh.

He was SSC pass and also tutored my daughter who studied in first standard, he added.

We have registered a case of kidnapping and are looking out for Sudhir, said a police officer from Kalamboli police station.