3 freedom-loving runaway teenagers found 5 days later in Virar

The Mumbai police have reunited three Std XII girls with their respective parents five days after they ran away from their homes in Kandivli and rented a flat in Virar. The girls, all aged 17 years, wanted to "stand on their own feet" but their parents were planning to get them married, the police said.

"Their parents had recently scolded them for spending too much time on their mobile phones and wanted to get them married soon. However, the girls wanted to study further and stand on their own feet," said a police officer.

Upset, the girls, two of whom are cousins, hatched a plan a month back to run away and finally left their homes on April 17. They rented a house for R1,500 per month in Virar and told the owner that they hail from another state and had come here in search of a job.

A few days later they went to Goregaon looking for a job when one of the girls called her mother to inform her that she was safe, while another called her grandfather from a PCO. The parents, who had already registered a missing persons complaint, informed the police about the phone calls. The police went looking for the girls in Goregaon but could not find them.

However, they were soon able to trace a male friend of one the girls through their social media accounts. The boy, who had helped the girls run away, told the police about their location. A team of Assistant Police Inspector Nitin Utekar, constables Ulhas Parab, Ajit Chavn and Prachi Mulik led by senior police inspector Chimaji Adhav rushed to the Virar and took them to their parents on Monday. "They wanted an independent life and did not want any interference of their family members," a police official said.

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