Fed up of online classes, girl leaves home and reaches Mumbai by train on Saturday; auto driver takes her straight to the cops
Autorickshaw driver Raju Karwade gets felicitated by Bhausaheb Aher, senior inspector of Manikpur police station. Pic/Hanif Patel
Fed-up with her ongoing online classes, a 14-year-old meritorious student – who often skipped her virtual classes, left her Delhi home on Friday morning, boarded the Kerala Sampoorna Kranti Express from the national capital and reached Vasai Road the next morning.
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An alert autorickshaw driver, who was waiting for his passengers outside Vasai station on Saturday morning, drove her directly to Manikpur police station, where the cops helped reunite her with her parents, who had filed a missing-cum-kidnapping case at a south Delhi police station.
The girl’s parents profusely thanked the autorickshaw driver Raju Karwade. He was also felicitated by the city as well as the traffic police.
The girl’s father is a senior government servant and her mother, a homemaker. “My daughter is an outstanding student. She is in Std VIII and prefers traditional classes over virtual. In a parent-teacher meeting, my wife was told that our daughter has not been attending the online class these days,” said her father, requesting anonymity.
“She feared that I would scold her for missing classes. On Friday morning, she left home without letting anyone know. We searched for her desperately in Delhi and nearby areas. We were all very scared,” he added.
“We are very thankful to the autorickshaw driver and Manikpur police for safeguarding our daughter,” he added.
After getting down at Vasai Road on Saturday morning, the girl approached Karwade and asked him for a place to stay and a job. The driver grew suspicious. “I was surprised when she told me that she wants to work in Mumbai. The girl looked like a minor. I told her she would need to submit an identity card,” Karwade told mid-day. “On her Aadhaar card, her birth year was 2007. When I asked where her parents were, the girl told me that her parents are separated and don’t love her,” Karwade added.
The driver then decided to hand her over to the police. “I told her that I got a good job for her and took her to the police station.” The driver told on-duty police officer Vikas Takwale everything and he took safe custody of the girl. “We contacted our Delhi counterparts, who contacted her mother,” said Bhausaheb Aher, senior inspector of Manikpur police station.
The parents reached Manipur police station where Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) police chief Sadanand Date met them. “After verifying all the documents, we handed over the girl to her parents,” Aher added.
The girl’s father says he will take up the issue of the agent giving a minor a train ticket. “It is wrong,” he said.
He added, “I would request parents to keep a watch on the behavioural changes in their children attending online classes these days.”
Std VIII
The class in which the minor studies
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