Two girls, aged 9 and 7, who ran away from their homes near Arakkonam in Vellore District, were rescued at Tambaram railway station on Thursday and handed over to volunteers of a non-governmental organisation.
Parvathy and Chitra told personnel of Government Railway Police, Tambaram, that they were students of a government primary school at their village in ‘Mettipettai’ near Arakkonam in Vellore District. The policemen had noticed the two girls walking around in the platforms of the station. They informed volunteers of the non-governmental organisation Marialaya. The volunteers later took the girls to their shelter in West Tambaram.
Neither the volunteers nor the policemen were unable to get any concrete information regarding their hometown from the girls. They were not able to locate any place by the name of ‘Mettipettai’. The girls did mention that they were daughters of Bakthavatsalam and Kanniappan respectively and that their families were working either in brick kilns or stone crusher units.
The girls also gave various accounts of how they reached Tambaram.
Initially, they said they had taken a train to Tambaram after school on Wednesday. Then, they said they had come to Arignar Anna Zoological Park along with fellow students and their headmaster Govindaraj.
Enquiries by The Hindu over telephone with policemen at Vellore District established that a case relating to the missing girls was registered at Arakkonam Taluk police station.
The girls were residents of Perumalrajapettai and their parents had given a complaint that their daughters were missing from their homes on Monday.
Arakkonam Taluk police officials said steps would be taken to reunite the children with their families at the earliest.
