Caller Demanded Ransom From Father Before Rescue In Jharkhand
Key Points
- Missing Teen From Pune Traced To Train Bound For Howrah
- Unknown Callers Demanded Money Via UPI From Girl’s Father
- Tatanagar Railway Police Help Locate, Rescue Minor Safely
PUNE – A teenage girl who had gone missing from Pune’s Kondhwa area has been traced and brought back safely from Tatanagar in Jharkhand, police said.
The development came after unidentified callers contacted the girl’s father over a video call, claiming custody of the minor and demanding money for her release.
According to police, the 17-year-old girl’s father, a resident of Kondhwa Budruk originally from Bihar, filed a missing person’s complaint on June 18. He alleged that an unknown individual had lured his daughter away from home.
Following the complaint, the Kondhwa police station registered a kidnapping case. Officers then began scanning CCTV footage and other leads to trace her whereabouts.
However, the probe took an unexpected turn when the father received a video call from unknown persons. The callers claimed they were holding his daughter.
They also sent him a UPI payment code and asked for cash in exchange for her release, police said. Senior Kondhwa police officials were alerted as soon as the call was reported.
Given the seriousness of the matter, senior officers in Pune deployed dedicated teams to investigate further. Meanwhile, the probe revealed that the girl had boarded the Azad Hind Express from Pune railway station.
The train was headed toward Howrah in West Bengal. Police subsequently reached out to railway authorities for assistance in tracking it.
Officials learned the train was due to arrive at Tatanagar station in Jharkhand. The Tatanagar railway police and train staff were alerted immediately.
With their cooperation, the girl was located onboard and taken into safe custody. A Kondhwa police team, along with her family members, later travelled to Tatanagar to bring her home.
“The girl is in good health and has been reunited with her family,” a police officer said. Investigators are now probing the circumstances under which she left home.
In addition, a separate case has been registered at Kondhwa police station against the unidentified callers who demanded ransom. Police are working to identify and apprehend those individuals.
Officers said efforts are ongoing to establish whether the ransom callers were connected to the girl’s disappearance or were unrelated opportunists. Investigators are also examining the UPI details shared during the call to trace the senders.
Such cases of missing minors being traced through railway networks are not new to the region. In a separate case earlier this year, a kidnapped girl was found in Jamshedpur after a similar coordinated search.
Moreover, Jharkhand has previously seen instances of minors going missing in connection with abduction allegations, including a case where an abduction case was filed against a youth from Bagbera.
Pune police said the investigation into the Kondhwa case remains active, with both the original missing-person complaint and the extortion-related case being probed in parallel.
(Written with inputs from IANS)
