The curious case of missing girl Poornima Sai aka Anika Shree

It should have been a happy occasion for the parents of missing tenth standard girl Poornima Sai when she was finally restored to them on Friday by the Bachupally police. It took the police and the Child welfare departments of Telangana three days to convince the young girl to return to her parents as she refused to accept them as a family.

It all began forty days ago on 7 June, when Poornima Sai left her home for school and never returned home. Her parents T. Nagaraju and Vijayadevi who migrated here from coastal Andhra Pradesh made a complaint to Bachupally police. The police investigation hit a road block as there was apparently no motive behind her possible abduction and there was no demand for ransom either.

Meanwhile, the Dongre Police from Mumbai sent a pamphlet that they have printed about a Hyderabad girl Anika Shree who was found in Mumbai. Initially, the local police who made several calls to police stations in Mumbai and Chennai didn’t realise Anika is Poornima. With the news of their daughter being traced in Mumbai, parents left for Balika Sudar Grih in Dongre area of Mumbai.

To their shock, their daughter refused to see them and preferred to stay at the correction facility instead. The devastated parents returned home only with an assurance by the Mumbai police that the girl will only be handed over to them after due process as she is refusing to stay with them. Finally, two lady police constables from here went to Mumbai and accompanied the girl back to Hyderabad. It took two days of counselling by the Child welfare committee to convince the girl to return home.

The police say that Poornima’s parents were not aware of the fact that the social media savvy girl is obsessed with TV serials. Her friends confirmed that the girl was a smash hit in Dabmashing on social media. She even had a conversation with an unidentified person over Instagram and shared her aspirations to become a film star.

The runaway girl who had reached Shirdi from Secunderabad station borrowed a mobile phone with access to the internet from a devotee there and searched for Girl rescue homes in Mumbai. At the Mumbai station, the police found her roaming around and put her at the correction centre.  The Mumbai police said that the girl wanted to make her career in the film industry and was least interested in studies.