London, April 6 : A British newspaper said Sunday it has established the parentage of a nine-year-old Sikh boy found abandoned in London recently.
The Mail on Sunday said its investigations showed the child, Gurinderjit Singh, comes from a family in Jalalpur in the state of Punjab.
The child, who does not speak English, turned up at a health clinic in the London suburb of Southall last month saying he had been dumped at a bus stop by a "white uncle" with whom he had lived for three years.
Photographs of the boy, splashed on newspaper, internet and television reports, triggered a global search for his parents, including a joint hunt by police in India, Scotland Yard and the Indian High Commission in London.
Two families have laid claim to the boy - one from Bihar and the other from Punjab, and the Mail on Sunday said its investigations backed up the claim from Punjab.
It said the boy was left in Southall, home to a large Sikh population, probably by relatives to give him a better chance in life.
Gurinderjit was taken abroad in October when his mother Deepinder left home to look for work after the breakdown of her marriage, his grandmother told the paper in India.
His birth certificate shows that Gurinderjit was born April 21, 1997 - making him around the same age as the boy in London.
Grandmother Gurbachah Kaur said, "I've seen the photo. He's definitely my grandson. This is terribly upsetting."
Kaur has not spoken to Deepinder since November.
MP Avinash Rai Khanna said: "Gurinderjit and the Punjabi boy in London would seem to be the same person."
With the abandoned boy now living with foster parents, police in London have not said anything beyond the fact that they were liasing with Indian authorities.
(IANS)
