3 runaway Bengaluru schoolgirls traced, reunited with kin; two wished to live as husband and wife

The city police have reunited three schoolgirls with their families, nearly three weeks after they were reported missing. Two of them wanted to marry each other as they thought nobody liked them because of their looks and because they were poor.

The girls — two in class 9 and one in class 10 at a private school in East Bengaluru — had run away on September 6.

Pulakeshinagar police led by inspector Kiran P B traced them to Chennai on September 23 after one of the girls called up her father.

Police started searching for the girls after the mother of a ninth grader filed a missing complaint. Her father was strict and had sternly told her to focus on her studies instead of hanging out with friends in their locality. The family lives in a slum.

The other two girls stayed in a hostel. One of them had lost her mother and her father had remarried. The stepmother didn’t like her and allegedly asked her husband to kill her. A priest at the church said her life was in danger, prompting her to plan the escape. The third girl had lost both her parents.

The three girls often talked to each other in school about their problems. They eventually decided to run away and lead independent lives. Citing their studies and poverty, the girls borrowed Rs 30,000 from friends and other sources, and ran away to Chennai.

Questioned by the Chennai police, the girls said they were in town for some work and would soon return to Bengaluru. The Chennai police sent them off to Bengaluru by train. But once they returned to the city, they saw their posters at the railway station, got scared and headed back to Chennai.

A passerby found them on the street. They told him they were orphans and were tortured in the hostel. He put them up in a hostel run by a church in Chennai. He also helped them get jobs at a grinder spare parts packing unit.

After getting to work, one of the girls bought a phone and gave her father a missed call. He called back but she didn’t utter a word.

When he tried again, she didn’t return the calls. Suspecting that it was his daughter, he went to the police, who succeeded in tracking her down. The other two girls were found later.

Police were shocked to learn that two of the girls wanted to marry each other, living as husband and wife.