Abandoned 20 Yrs Ago, Spanish Woman Returns To Bhubaneswar Looking For Biological Mother

Bhubaneswar: It has been over two weeks since Sneha Enrique Vidal, a Spanish citizen, returned to Odisha capital to find her biological parents.

It was here that she was adopted as a toddler by a Spanish couple 20 years ago.

The 21-year-old girl, however, has only a day left before she has to return to Spain for her educational commitments.

Sneha and her brother Somu were adopted by Gema Vidal and Juan Josh of Spain in February 2010 from an orphanage in Bhubaneswar, where they were put up after being abandoned by their mother, Banalata Das, in 2005. She was only over a year old, and her brother was just a few months old at that time.

“The purpose of my journey from Spain to Bhubaneswar is to find my biological parents, especially my mother. I want to find her and meet her. I am fully prepared for the journey even if it is difficult,” news agency PTI reported, quoting Sneha, who is a researcher in children’s education.

If she gets to meet her parents, she would ask the reason for abandoning her and her younger sibling.

Sneha arrived here with her Spanish mother, who is a yoga teacher in Zaragoza city, on December 19 last year to trace her roots with scanty information about her past and have been staying in a homestay facility at Laxmisagar since then. The frantic search led them to a retired teacher of Rama Devi Women’s University, Sneha Sudha Mishra, who provided them local assistance.

Mishra also helped the mother-daughter duo meet Commissioner of Police Dev Datta Singh, who assigned the job of locating Banalata Das and Santosh Das to two police personnel.

“We have found out that Banalata and Santosh are from Badamba-Narsinghpur area in Cuttack district. We have engaged police and panchayat functionaries to locate them,” said Inspector Anjali Chhotray.

Her biological father, Santosh, worked as a cook in a private firm, and abandoned his family, comprising his wife, and four children. Banalata left their rented house at Nayapalli’s Bhoi slum in 2005 with another son and daughter, leaving behind Sneha and Somu. The house owner informed the police, which then shifted them to an orphanage, the report further stated.

Gema said that they would come back in March for a longer stay if they fail to trace Sneha’s biological mother by Monday. “We have to return to Spain as Sneha has joined a training programme which should not be discontinued,” she said.