LUCKNOW: A 16-year-old girl who ran away from home after being scolded for not focusing on her studies has been reunited with her family nearly 21 months later, bringing relief to her parents after a prolonged search marked by uncertainty and distress.The girl, then a Class 9 student residing in the BBD police station area, had gone missing on September 2, 2024. According to police, she left home after being reprimanded by family members over her studies. In an impulsive move, she contacted a male friend from Ghazipur district and the two decided to leave the city.Investigators said the duo met at a railway station and boarded a train to Pune. With limited financial resources and no support system, they survived by taking up odd jobs in the city. Meanwhile, the girl’s family lodged a kidnapping case and launched extensive efforts to trace her, but for months there were no concrete leads.The breakthrough came during Operation Muskaan, a statewide initiative aimed at tracing missing children. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of Lucknow Police began re-examining the case using technical surveillance and local intelligence inputs.During the probe, police tracked the girl’s link to her friend’s native place in Ghazipur. An AHTU team visited the village and gathered crucial leads, eventually tracing their movement to Pune. Acting on this input, a police team located and recovered her on June 9. She was safely brought back and reunited with her family.ADCP (Crime) Kiran Yadav said the case highlights a common pattern in missing children’s cases. “Many such incidents stem from emotional distress, family disagreements or academic pressure. These decisions are often impulsive, but the consequences can be long-lasting,” she said.For the girl’s parents, the reunion marked the end of an agonising wait. “We never stopped hoping she would come back,” a family member said, as the teenager finally returned home after nearly two years.
