Kolkata, April 11 (IANS) Four Class nine girl students who mysteriously disappeared from a school were rescued within 12 hours by the officers of Kolkata’s Amherst Street police station, said a senior officer of Kolkata Police on Saturday.

The sensational incident took place at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at the century-old Arya Kanya School at Bidhan Sarani in north Kolkata.

The incident began on April 8. The four students had gone to school just like any other day. But after the school ended, they did not return to their homes. Their parents, who got worried, rushed to the local Amherst Street police station and lodged a kidnapping case. Based on their complaint, a team from the Amherst Street police station, led by Officer-in-Charge Shubhdeep Chakraborty, immediately started an investigation.

A police officer said that the Kolkata Police team started examining the CCTV footage of Howrah and Sealdah stations in the afternoon. The photographs of the four missing students were shown to the Government Railway Police, Railway Protection Force and hawkers present at the station.

Through sources, the police learned that the four students had changed their school uniforms in the toilet of the Old Complex of Howrah Station and boarded a long-distance train. Incidentally, trains to Mumbai and Asansol were leaving Howrah at that time.

During the initial probe, the investigation team, after questioning the classmates of the four missing students, learned that the four students had recently been scolded for going to a hookah bar in Kolkata without informing their parents.

In addition, a friend of a schoolgirl told the police that one of the four students had met an 18-year-old youth from Asansol through Instagram. The four students had even met him a few days ago when the youth came to Kolkata for a business purpose.

On Wednesday night, a team of police from the Amherst Street police station left for Asansol. Upon reaching there, the Kolkata Police learned through the local police station that a youth and a minor girl had been injured in a bike accident during naka checking at around 11:30 p.m. The police found the young man in the hospital after searching for him. After questioning him, the Kolkata Police came to know about the presence of four girls in Asansol.

The girls went to several hotels in Asansol to spend the night on Wednesday. But no one agreed to pay the hotel rent for the four minors. The Kolkata Police rescued the four girls unharmed from Asansol station at around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. They were brought to Kolkata on Thursday afternoon. It is learnt that they are currently kept in a home.

“Investigation is on to find out why the girls went to Asansol and who had taken them there. Efforts are on to find out the motive behind the girls leaving the school and not informing their parents, and ending up in Asansol. We are trying to solve the mystery behind their disappearance,” said the senior officer of Kolkata Police.

–IANS

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