Netizens take to Facebook for info on missing Andhra girl

The case of six-year-old Ch Sai Lavanya Aditi, missing for five days in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam has made netizens form a Facebook community and ask everyone for help.

The girl’s disappearance garnered so much attention that even Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu visited her family on Tuesday.

On September 24, Aditi had reportedly fallen into an open drain while entering a car on her way back from a tuition centre.

A massive search operation by the police and the Visakhapatnam Urban Development authority (VUDA) in the drain at HB Colony, which opens into the sea, yielded no results.

Following on the narration of driver Gurunath, who was supposed to bring the girl home from tuition, even Navy divers were summoned to search 40 km area around the beach. “Operation dry drainage” has been taken up to pump out water and search for the girl.
In all, hundreds of workers have been employed in the search.

However, the police were in for a shock when the driver told mediapersons he had not actually seen the girl fall into the drain but only suspected that she might have fallen in it.
The cops are now questioning people they suspect could have kidnapped the girl.

“The police found no clues so far. The massive search operations have not even found her shoes or school bag. The police should also probe the case from a possible kidnap angle,” said Aditi’s father Ch Srinivas, who believes his daughter is alive.

He said the chief minister assured him all help in finding the girl.  Meanwhile, parents' and children’s organisations are blaming the school and the tuition centre authorities for sending out children in heavy rain.

AP Balala Hakkula Sangham president Anuradha Rao said in a statement here: “It is not correct to take a six-year-old girl for private tuitions. It is the tuition centre owner's responsibility to ensure the children's safety.”

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Amit Garg has said all angles are being probed.