Tara and her father Ram Latki, domestic workers at a Karjat farm owned by Vinod Gala, had come to Mumbai to the Galas' residence at Bhawani Complex, Dadar. When Latki had to leave the house for some work, he left his daughter with his employers' family, ignoring her pleas to take her along.

A miffed Tara sat brooding in the bedroom for a while. She found the bedroom window open, and to lodge her protest, decided to climb out through it - only to land on the parapet just below. Seated there, Tara realised just how far she was away from ground level: 11 floors high. ``The sight unnerved the child so much that she refused to move from her crouching position even after the fire brigade came,'' said police sub-inspector Madhavi Wadkar, who recorded the girl'sstatement.

The fire engines that arrived from the Worli fire station found that their ladders were not long enough to reach the girl. So fire engines from Byculla were brought and rescue operations commenced at around 10.30 am, nearly an hour after Tara's ordeal began. Even as the firemen tried out various tricks of the trade to bring Tara down, a fireman slid through the window, much in the same way as Tara had done, and threw her a rope, which she managed to tie around her.

Finally, at around 11.30 am, Tara was pulled back into the flat. She was then taken to Dadar police station, where she recounted the tale of her father's `betrayal' and asked for permission to go home. The police obliged, as did the harassed Galas, who even decided to volunteer their vehicle for the purpose. Tara finally made her way to Karjat in the Galas' car, a police constable in tow.