‘Two of the four girls had eloped with boyfriends’

“The girls were allowed to leave the shelter home premises as it was a Saturday, and they are, as per rules, allowed to go out for a short while every Saturday. Their disappearance was discovered at night during the daily headcount. We then found out their addresses as well as whereabouts of their known contacts. One of the girls has a case of robbery against her and we obtained her case details from the police station,” said an officer with the Amboli police.

In the meantime, one of the four girls returned to the NGO of her own accord, while the other was traced to her friend’s place in Panvel.

The police then made inquires with these two girls about the remaining two, after which the police learned that they had been in relationships with two 19-year-old former inmates of the Children’s Home in Dongri.

“The girl with the police record had met one of the two boys at a CWC hearing, and after being released from the Dongri Children’s Home, he, along with another former inmate, started meeting the girls, leading to love affairs. Working on this information, we traced the girl with the police record to Panvel, where she was staying with her boyfriend, while the fourth girl was traced to Diva, where she, too, was with her boyfriend,” said the officer.

The two boys were arrested on Tuesday and charged with rape and kidnapping, as the girls are minors. They girls, in their statements to the police, have said that after being released from Dongri, the boys convinced them to ‘elope’ with them, the police said.

megha.sood@expressindia.com