Deoghar deputy commissioner Sunil Kumar Barnwal on Saturday wrote a letter to the state government seeking directions from it on the court's order. "My recommendation is to go in appeal against the court's order for compensation," Barnwal said. According to him, the government did not ruin the girl's life but instead saved it by keeping her in "safe custody" for so many years.

Barnwal said, repeated efforts to send her back had proved futile since there was no response to the letters the administration wrote to the address provided by the girl.

The state's efforts were obviously not serious enough. The district administration actually woke up after the court order, when Barnwal decided to speak to his counterpart in Guwahati who helped him trace Anita's kin.

"She had given us an address of Golaghat which did not exist," said Barnwal adding that it was Goalpara in Assam where Anita belonged.

After the court order, the Deoghar administration went out of its way - by the DC's own admission - to provide woman constables to escort Anita to Assam where she recognised her brother, Ashok Mazumdar and was handed over to him.

Notwithstanding the administration's arguments, it now remains to be seen whether the governments of Bihar and Jharkhand actually cough up Rs 50,000 each to compensate for nine long years of lost adulthood.