Insta reel helps cops trace cousins who fled UP to become actors

Shahida Shaikh, 20, and Zannat Shaikh, 21, were found working in a plastic fabrication company in Vasai. Pic/Hanif Patel

Two cousins, who left their home in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh last December and reached Vasai to become actors, were reunited with their parents with the help of Manikpur police on Wednesday. This was made possible thanks to the Instagram reels, which helped police trace their whereabouts.

The cousins, Shahida Shaikh, 20, and Zannat Shaikh, 21, were found working in a plastic fabrication company in Vasai and stayed in a small room in a chawl nearby said the police.

Zannat's father Kabeer told mid-day, "My daughter is married and had some issues at her in-laws place so she decided not to stay there. We don't know what and how they conspired to leave Allahabad. The cousins are like best friends."

"They left home last year and after a desperate search, when they were not found, we registered missing person complaints at Saraimamrej police station on December 26. The cops did nothing to help us trace them," he added.

"Around 15 days ago, Zannat called her mother from an unknown number. We immediately alerted the concerned police officer in my hometown and they traced the location to Vasai. However, they did not help us further. The cops told me that I would have to bear their full travel cost to Vasai but we are too poor to afford that," he added.

Found on social media

The helpless parents contacted their relatives in Mumbai and through them reached the Manikpur police and gave them the cellphone number which Zannat used to call her mother in Allahabad.

"Though we traced the number we could not zero down on their exact location. So we tried to search for them on social media including Facebook and Instagram. On Instagram, our team found Zannat who had recently developed interest in making reels," said Bhausaheb Aher, senior inspector of Manikpur police station.

"In one of her reels, we found the logo of a plastic fabrication company in Navghar. We reached there and asked the staff members if they knew either of the girls but they were not identified by any of them. The plastic fabrication company has other branches too, so we went to one of them and found Zannat who was working there on a daily wages," Aher added.

"After questioning Zannat, we got to know the whereabouts of Shahida who was at their rented room in a chawl in Vasai. Zannat
told us that she wanted to become an actress and that was the reason she had been making reels and posting them on her Instagram accounts. After verification of documents, we handed over the young women to their parents," he added.

Thanks to Maharashtra cops

Kabeer said, "The Maharashtra police have helped us trace our missing daughters. We had lost all hope to see our daughters, as
Zannat told her mother on the phone that they are in trouble. But thanks to the Manikpur police, we have reunited with our missing daughters."

"We could not ask them why they left us but they had been living in very a sad condition and the rented room was completely messy. There was no electricity when we entered the room. Zannat would earn R220 per day in Vasai," he said.