Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Two runaway girls restored

VIJAYAWADA: It had all the trappings of a Telugu film, like the police giving a hot chase to the runaway gangsters and successfully nabbing them in the end. The only difference in this real life drama was that the police did not have to chase criminals or gangsters, but two girls of 7th standard of a private school in One Town, who ran away from their homes dejected by the frequent admonishing by their parents. The One Town police managed to bring back the two girls, who left their school on Thursday and headed towards Tirupati, in the early hours of Friday. The police were startled to know that the duo shared the common feeling of not being wanted by their parents, who apparently scolded them on quite a few occasions.

One Town inspector of police K. Venkateswara Rao told reporters on Friday that one of the girls had developed a feeling over the last six months that her father, a timber merchant at Seetharamapuram, did not want her. She shared this feeling with her bosom friend, who, incidentally, was also suffering from the same inferiority complex.

The two girls drew a plan and meticulously implemented it. On Thursday, they came to school carrying civil dresses and some money that they accumulated from their savings to buy train tickets. Once the school was over for the day, the girls entered the railway station from the Tarapet side and boarded the Kakinada-Tirupati passenger.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao said that the police got the vital clue about the direction the girls headed to on the basis of information provided by the driver of auto-rickshaw who picks up one of the two girls every day. The driver told the police that the other girl had asked him a few days before as to how much would it cost to go to Tirupati by a train. Seizing the opportunity, a team of police constables was quickly sent by road towards Tirupati, with the instruction to check the Kakinada-Tirupati passenger at the first available opportunity.

Though the girls were spotted in a coach at Ongole station by a few men, who were asked by a relative of one of the two girls to help the distressed families, the train left the station before they could be convinced to alight. Attempts to reach the girls failed at Singarayakonda, the next station, too. Finally, after making umpteen calls and with the intervention of the railway police, the girls were finally made to disembark the train at Kavali and brought back to the city by road.

“We counselled the girls and also told the parents that they should take them to psychiatrists for better treatment,” Mr. Venkateswara Rao said.

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