Mumbai: NGO helps city woman, kids, escape abusive kin in Nairobi

Dimple Sumariya (second from left) along with her children, Roochi and Joy, and mother Alka

Dimple Sumariya, 38, and her two children, who landed in Mumbai from Kenya on Friday, are here thanks only to a local NGO there who helped them escape an abusive relative.

Sumariya, who is originally from Bhayandar, said she and her children were forcibly taken to Nairobi in October and repeatedly assaulted for months. In desperation, she circulated a video on social media appealing for help, which got the attention of the NGO Oswal Community in Nairobi. Through them, she approached the Indian Consulate there, who finally facilitated the family's return to India.

Sumariya told mid-day that she was still living in fear of her brother-in-law who, she said, was a very powerful man and ran a huge business empire in Kenya. She said in October last year she, along with her children, had been dragged from her mother's house and taken to Nairobi. Sumariya said she had separated from her husband and along with her two kids Roochi, 9, and Joy, 11, had been living with her mother Alka Mehta.

"In Nairobi, we were kept in separate flats and assaulted and ill-treated. Desperate, I made a video and circulated it on whatsapp, and it somehow reached Oswal Community, who helped us. Sumariya has filed a case at the Bhayandar police station.

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