Representative image of an FIR.
Credit: iStock Photo
Thane: A 14-year-old schoolgirl went missing from near Thane railway station three days ago, leading police to file a case of kidnapping and launch a search for her, an official said on Wednesday.
The girl was spotted coming out of her school at around 12.55 pm on Monday and heading towards Thane railway station, instead of home, and then disappearing midway, he said.
Her worried parents launched a search after their daughter did not reach home and later lodged a police complaint. They also met Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, an MLA from Thane city, and sought his intervention to locate the teenager.
An officer with the Thane Nagar police station said based on the complaint, a case of kidnapping under section 137 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered on February 3 against unidentified person/s. A search has been launched to trace the girl, he said.
Meanwhile, a large number of citizens on Wednesday thronged the residence of Shinde in Thane city seeking his intervention in tracing the girl. Shinde immediately called up the police after the girl's parents met him and gave them instructions to intensify the search for her, a source from her family told the media.
One of the local residents said if the girl was not traced forthwith, people will take out a 'morcha' (march) to put pressure on the police administration. Some members of the group cited CCTV footage, which they said, showed the girl walking alone on a bridge with a man and a woman following her. She is thereafter seen at Panvel railway station, around 40km from Thane city, they claimed. However, the police were yet to comment on the CCTV footage.