The 13-year-old girl who went missing after alighting from her school bus at Rajajinagar here on August 24 was found at the Hubballi Railway Station on Sunday.
It later emerged that the teenager had been travelling by train and had been to Mysuru, Arsikere, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai before finally boarding a Bengaluru-bound train with a halt in Hubballi, where she was finally found and reunited with her parents.
“I want to thank the police, the school and the press as well as those who helped us in our search by circulating our social media appeals,” said the girl’s father.
After searching for their daughter in the houses of their relatives and friends and filing a police complaint on August 24, the parents had posted appeals on the social media and television.
“I’m happy that I have returned safely,” said the girl after being reunited with her family in Hubballi. They later returned to Bengaluru.
A relative of the girl in Hubballi received a message on Sunday morning that she had been spotted in Ahmedabad where she had made enquiries about trains leaving to Bengaluru. A ticket collector there had advised her to take a train to Mumbai and take a train to Bengaluru from there.
“We just knew that she wanted to go to Bengaluru and for that she had to come to Hubballi. The first train from Mumbai to Hubballi was scheduled to arrive at 12.30 p.m. Along with my friends and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, I searched the coaches and found her asleep in a sleeper coach. She is safe and healthy,” the relative said.
In shock“We did not want to pressure the girl by asking her too many questions as she was in a state of shock. We have learnt that she had taken Rs. 600 from her mother claiming that she was taking part in a cultural event at school. She had planned to leave the house as she was worried about her mother shouting at her for scoring low marks in the unit test. She had also taken a pair of clothes along with her,” said a police officer, and added that the moment she had gotten off the school bus in Bengaluru, she had gone to the Yeshwantpur Railway Station.
“With the money she had, she managed to buy food and even a top for Rs. 45 at Ahmedabad after she found that her clothes were dirty. We are happy that she is back,” said the relative said.
