Two girls, who fled their homes in this Uttarakhand district and travelled to Punjab to meet a friend they had made while playing an online game, were found by police and handed over to their families, officials said on Tuesday.
The girls, aged 13 and 17, were traced to a bus stand in Punjab’s Rajpura through electronic surveillance, police said.
A person living in Vikasnagar here got a police complaint lodged, saying his 13-year-old niece and her 17-year-old friend from the neighbourhood went somewhere together on February 2 without informing anyone and could not be traced.
Police said a case was lodged and a probe launched.
Police questioned the family, those living nearby and friends of the missing minors, and scanned the CCTV footage. Information about the missing girls was also shared on social media.
Through electronic surveillance, police came to know that the girls were in Haryana’s Ambala. A police team left for Ambala but in the meantime, the girls’ location had changed.
The girls were finally traced to a bus stand in Punjab’s Rajpura, police said.
The girls said they had run away on their own to meet a friend they had made while playing the online game ‘Free Fire’.
They denied being involved in any criminal activity, after which they were handed over to their families, police said.
