The Erwadi police have rescued a 14-year-old girl, who was wandering at Erwadi on Saturday after fleeing from Chennai, distressed by her father’s death and upset with her step mother’s alleged ill-treatment.
Ms. Kalaiselvi, Inspector of Police, Erwadi All Women Police Station, said the girl from Ashok Nagar in Chennai and studying class VIII, was found wandering in Erwadi, when beat police rescued and handed her over to the women police.
The girl, who was in school uniform and carrying school bag, should have boarded the Rameswaram Express in Chennai on Friday night and reached here on Saturday morning, she said. After getting down here, she had travelled to Erwadi in a bus, she added.
She was familiar with Erwadi as her father used to bring her and her younger brother to the pilgrim town every year to witness the annual Sandanakoodu festival. She looked disturbed as her father died about 10 days ago and she had come to Erwadi to meet her uncle and aunt, police said. Her father M. S. Raja was the native of the town, police said.
Enquiries by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sivasankar revealed that she went to school on Friday and did not return home. Instead she had boarded the train to Ramanathapuram.
With the phone number given by the girl, police contacted her step mother and found that she had lodged a complaint with Ashok Nagar police station about the missing of the girl.
On being informed, two police personnel, including a woman constable from Ashok Nagar police station came to Erwardi on Sunday and took custody of the girl. The girl was under the care of all women police at Erwadi on Saturday night, police said.