PUNE: Within 12 hours after four minor girls went missing from Warje on Sunday evening, police in the early hours of Monday traced them in Mumbai.
The girls aged between 12 and 16 years who had left their houses around 4pm on Sunday found near Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) building around 3.30am on Monday. A team Warje Malwadi police led by inspector Amrut Marathe brought the girls to Pune and safely handed them over to their parents.
"The girls claimed that they had left their houses following harassment by the parents. Each one of them was carrying extra clothes with herself," Marathe told TOI.
The parents of the girls who are residing in the same building in Warje lodged the missing complaint in the evening. "We registered the case of kidnapped ab and began the probe. During the technical investigation we found that the girls were in Vadgaon Maval. We immediate sent a team there, but did not find them," Marathe said.
He said that suspecting the girls may have travelling to Mumbai, the control room of Government Railway Police (GRP) Mumbai was imminent alerted. "We had also provided them with the photographs of the girls. Besides we also sent a team to Mumbai," Marathe said.
Around 3.30am, GRP team noticed the girls sitting outside the BMC building in Mumbai. "They alerted us. Our team too reached there and took the custody of the girls,"Marathe said.
He said that the girls later told the police that they first went to Panvel by bus and from there they took another bus and reached Dadar. They then hired a taxi and went near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. "One of them were carrying cellphone, which too was not reachable. They were left with very little money," Marathe said.
Member of parliament Supriya Sule who was in Warje Malwadi for some programme took note of the efforts taken by the police. She went to the police station and appreciated the police team for their work.