After the girls returned from Madhugiri, in Tumkur district, on Monday morning, Kumaraswamy Layout police questioned them on their ‘disappearance’.
Initially, they came out with a kidnap story, but later they admitted they were worried their parents were burdened by debt to see their daughters pursue studies in the best schools, police said.
The four - Bindushri and Sheethal from fifth standard, and Deepika and Anusha (eighth standard) from Banashankari and nearby areas - were missing since Saturday.
Police said on Saturday afternoon, Bindu met Sheethal regarding an arithmetic problem. As Sheethal did not know the answer, the duo decided to meet Deepika. Incidentally, Anusha was also with them.
During the course of their discussion, each one expressed their parents’ inability to send them for tuitions. It was here that one of them suggested they flee home and start a new life.
Within minutes, they met near Rajalakshmi Nursing Home, Banashankari and boarded a bus to the Majestic bus stand. With Rs 400 that Deepika had with her, they boarded a bus to Tumkur, police said. On seeing a wedding hall near Badavanahalli near Koti Lingeshwara temple, they decided to alight the bus. They attended a marriage party, made new friends, had dinner and spent the night, according to the police.
The next morning, the girls roamed the city and visited Maathangamma temple. By then, realisation dawned on them that they needed their parents. The girls then hit upon a plan to enact a kidnap drama and narrated their concocted version to the temple authorities who, in turn, informed the Madhugiri police.
The rural police alerted the Kumaraswamy Layout police station, where the girls’ parents had lodged a missing complaint.