A 17-year-old girl who had an interest in Shamanism went missing about two months ago and has remained untraceable despite the best efforts of the police.
Her parents have now taken to Twitter to seek help from the public to trace her.
Kavya (not her real name) left her parents’ Rajajinagar home around 8 pm on October 31 without telling anyone. She had finished class 12 from a CBSE institution and wanted to study fashion design but couldn’t get into a good college and was depressed over it, a source said.
While sneaking out of home, Kavya carried just two pairs of clothes and Rs 2,500 in cash. She didn’t take her mobile phone or anything else. Her family looked for her wherever they could before going to the jurisdictional Subramanyanagar police.
Police opened a case of kidnap (because she was a minor when she went missing; she was 17 years and eight months old) and launched an investigation.
Police have been scouring CCTV footage, both public and private. As things stand, she was caught on camera at a particular place but there’s no trace of her after that, said Patil Vinayak Vasantrao, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).
“A forensic analysis of her online activities has shown that she had been reading up on Shamanism. A special police team visited many places where spiritual activities and meditation are conducted but there has been no clue,” Patil added.
Her family confirmed that she had recently developed an interest in Shamanism and had told her parents about it many times. She also suddenly became a recluse. These behavioural changes prompted the parents to take her for counselling but that didn’t help much.
After her disappearance, the girl has not contacted her parents, relatives or friends. “We are in constant touch with the parents and have been updating them daily about the efforts to trace her,” another senior police officer said.
According to the officer, it’s highly unlikely that the girl was kidnapped or she had gone with someone on her own. Her parents told the police that someone had influenced her with spiritual activities because she is too young and immature to take her own decisions.
What is Shamanism?
Shamanism is a religious practice performed by a shaman (= a person who is believed to have special powers to influence or control spirits so that they can come into the physical world to solve problems). The shaman usually interacts with a spirit through trance or other altered states of consciousness.
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