2 runaway minor girls rescued; one of them found sleeping with pavement dwellers

Mumbai police use synchronised collaboration, on-ground sources and quick action to track and rescue two minor girls who ran away from home after being scolded by their parents. The girls were found within hours and referred to child welfare for counselling.

MUMBAI: Using synchronised collaboration, on-ground sources, and quick action, the police managed to track and rescue two minor girls within hours on Saturday and Sunday. Both girls had run away from home after being scolded by their parents.

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In the first instance, a 10-year-old girl was found sleeping with a family living on the pavement outside railway station on Saturday while the 13-year-old was brought back to the city from Vadodara.

On Saturday, the 10-year-old from Andheri East left her home around 11.30 am after she had a tiff with her mother.

“Upon realising that the girl was not at home, the parents initially looked for her at the houses of friends in the area, her school which is close to home and other probable places where she could be. They also noticed she had taken a small sum of money which was in their Puja room as an offering to the Gods. The parents approached us around 4.30pm,” said deputy commissioner of police for Zone X, Datta Nalawade.

He said that the Andheri police immediately got into action, forming ten teams spread out in the local area, railway stations, metro stations and one that was coordinating with the railway police.

“We could track her movements in the first few hours. She first went to her school, then sat at some public areas, ate something and then went to the Jogeshwari railway station from where she took a train and got off at Khar station towards the evening. After that, we could not see her anywhere in the CCTV footage,” said Nalawade.

The team then went around asking the people at the station. After talking to almost 150 people, describing the girl’s appearance and attire, they found a clue about her interacting with some pavement dwellers.

“We found her around 11pm. By then, she had gone to sleep with a family living outside the station. She was reunited with her family before the day ended,” said the DCP.

The next day, the police were told about another girl, a 13-year-old who had left home with the intention to live with some relatives in Vadodara.

“She lives with her single father in Andheri West. The father had told her that morning that he was not happy about her excessive social media usage. She left home after that and the father contacted us soon after realising this,” said Nalawade.

Since she had travelled to Vadodara before with her father, she knew her way around the trains, said the police. “We activated the same teams from the previous day. They could track her movements to Vadodara within five hours of the girl being reported missing,” the DCP added. The biggest problem in the second case, he said, was that there were no CCTV cameras on the route she took.

This meant that the on-ground detection team had to rely heavily on their local sources. Again, they interviewed about a hundred people to get information regarding the movement of the girl.

“With the help of railway police, we got her back to the city early the next day and reunited her with her father,” Nalawade added.

Both girls have been referred to the child welfare committee which is providing them the necessary counselling.