M A I N   N E W S

Missing Madeleine puts Leh in a tizzy
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Leh, July 23
High drama prevailed in the busy Fort Road market of the city last night when three persons identified a six-year-old girl as Madeleine McCann, a British girl who went missing while on a holiday in Portugal in 2007.

The infamous case had hogged limelight when Madeleine disappeared in May 2007 while she was holidaying with her parents and siblings in the Algarve region of Portugal. The minor girl went missing from an apartment a few days before her fourth birthday and has still not been found. According to the Wikipedia and various web portals, Madeline’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann had stated that they had left the children unsupervised in the ground floor bedroom while they were at a restaurant about 120 metres away.

Last night, a British woman saw a French woman with her Belgian husband roaming in the market with a girl who looked like Madeleine. She immediately informed the British police and the Leh police. The local police has taken the passports of the suspects for verification.

The missing girl’s parents have set up a website where they have put up her pictures that were taken in 2007 and also pictures of how she would look like as she would grow up.

As the British woman shared her suspicions with few others and took a picture of the girl, an American youth -- who was also following the couple -- tried to take away the girl from them. He later told the police that he suspected the girl to be Madeleine. Another American woman also shared the suspicion.

The French woman, however, rubbished their claims, saying that she and her husband were the biological parents of the girl.

A local police official said there was worldwide alert for Madeleine and it would be a great honour for the Leh police to find the missing girl. “However, it all depends upon the evidence like DNA for which help from Madeleine’s parents and the British police was required.”