VADODARA: They had hardly reached an age to understand living independently, yet these two Class IX students decided to elope and live like a couple, miles away from home and family.
The girl and boy took the drastic step as they were infatuated with and missed each other.
The boy and girl, both residents of Chhani, were found from Vapi on Sunday, 13 days after they had fled taking Rs 30,000 cash from their homes.
When asked, they told police that as the schools were closed since March last year, they were not able to meet freely and fled from their homes on the morning of December 28. The boy had taken Rs 25,000 cash from the temple of his house while the girl carried Rs 5,000.
“They went to Ranoli railway station, but when they could not find a train, they reached Sayajigunj and hired a private taxi to go to Vapi. It was learnt that since the boy’s family used to often go to Daman, he was familiar with the region,” said a senior police official.
On reaching Vapi, they took a room on rent for Rs 500 per month. Meanwhile, the duo’s parents searched for them and when they could not be found, an offence of kidnapping was registered against the boy at Chhani police station.
Realizing that they will exhaust the cash within a few days, the boy took up a casual labour job in a garment shop. He was paid Rs 366 daily. A couple of days back, when the boy contacted his friend, police got a whiff of it.
“Using human intelligence and technical surveillance we tracked them down to Vapi,” said inspector R S Dodiya of Chhani police station.
When they were brought to Vadodara, the girl revealed that they had physical relations. “We have now booked the boy for rape and under sections of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act,” Dodiya added.
On Sunday, the girl’s medical test was done while the boy was quarantined.