Rajkot: A seemingly innocuous birthday wish on Facebook provided a breakthrough clue that helped Amreli police solve a 12-year-old missing-person case and reunite a family with a daughter they had long feared they would never see again.The girl had left her home in Chital village of Amreli taluka without informing her family when she was 15. Twelve years later, police traced her to Bhalgamda in Halvad taluka of Morbi district, where the missing teenager had grown into a 27-year-old married woman and a mother of four — two daughters and two sons.It was also revealed she had been married while still a minor and had given birth to two children before turning 18. Her 33-year-old husband, an auto driver, has been arrested and sent to jail for marrying a minor. Police have also added provisions relating to rape under IPC and POCSO Act.The girl had left home after being reprimanded by her family for not helping with household chores. She travelled by bus to Rajkot, telling a female passenger that she was an orphan when she could not afford a ticket. At the Rajkot bus station, a Morbi couple found her hungry and crying, took her home and initially treated her like their daughter. The couple’s neighbour was looking for a match for their nephew and she was married to him, police said.Her father had lodged a complaint at Amreli taluka police station after she went missing. Despite 16 investigating officers handling the case over the years, she remained untraced.The case was revived when PI V P Gol of the Amreli Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) and his team reopened the investigation. After finding no fresh lead from the family, police pivoted their strategy toward demographic and digital mapping.In July, an AHTU woman employee spotted a birthday post wishing a young woman whose date of birth matched that of the missing girl. Although the girl’s father failed to recognise her photograph, police pursued the lead.The police were browsing the pictures on this FB post to find some clue and they spotted an auto rickshaw. Based on this auto’s registration number, police got the owner’s mobile number and address in Morbi.“We cross-checked her social media profile with mobile, vehicle, banking and residential records. The team eventually traced her current address and visited her home posing as population survey officials. Her father’s name and an old photograph submitted by her husband for opening a bank account helped confirm her identity. During questioning, she admitted she had gone missing from Amreli 12 years ago,” Gol said.The woman told police she had initially wanted to return home but abandoned the idea out of guilt after becoming a mother of two.
