Two ‘runaway’ minor girls traced to Goa, man detained

According to the Oshiwara police, the two girls, who are Class X students of a school in Andheri (West), left their residences to attend tuition classes on Monday evening and later called their parents to tell them that they would be spending some time at the Mega Mall in Oshiwara. However, when they did not come home till 9 pm, the families tried reaching them on the phone. After several attempts failed, they approached the Oshiwara police, which registered missing persons complaint.

The police, through inquiries at the tuition centre located at Anand Nagar in Behram Baug, traced one of their classmates. “The classmate told us that he had found a notebook belonging to one of the girls in which she had written a note in English. The note said she wanted freedom to live her own life which she was not getting at home and that she wanted to run away to Delhi,” said senior police inspector Subhash Vele of Oshiwara Police Station.

During further inquiries, the police also spoke to the younger sister of one of the girls, who told them she had seen her crying alone in frustration more than once. The girl had also mentioned to her sister that she wanted to roam the world. Her parents, meanwhile, told the police they had granted the girl some freedom, allowing her to go to malls with her friends, which she liked to do frequently, but they also wanted her to focus on her studies.

On Wednesday, the parents of the girls reportedly received a call from a man based in Panjim, Goa, who said the girls had asked him for a place to stay saying they had run out of money and they were at his house since then. The man further asked for money from the parents as he had taken care of their food and lodging.

“We contacted the Goa police and asked them to trace the number from which the call had been made. They got back to us on Wednesday evening, saying they had detained the man and also had the girls in their custody. A police team, along with the parents of the girls, have now left for Goa,” Vele said.

“We suspect that our daughters were kidnapped as they did not have the money to be able to go to Goa by themselves. We ourselves do not have the money to fly to Goa and are going by train. We have spent the last three days in absolute horror, fearing for our children,” said a parent of one of the girls.

Vele said the police would also probe any kidnapping angle.