“We’re so thankful to Lucknow police for helping reunite me with my daughter,” the mother said after police traced the 14-year-old runaway girl and brought her home.

700 km away in Ajmer, runaway Lucknow girl returns home after seeing ‘ailing’ mother

The girl had fled to Ajmer, nearly 700 km away, on August 9 after being scolded by her mother. Lucknow police persuaded her to return by telling her that her mother was unwell, following which the girl came back home.

She left home after being upset over a scolding related to her studies, leaving behind only a brief note at a neighbourhood paan shop. Five days later, after travelling to Ajmer, the 14-year-old Class 6 student remained unwilling to return. Without a phone of her own, she had stopped responding to attempts to contact her and appeared determined to stay away.

However, she made a few silent calls to her family using an unknown number. Hazratganj police traced the number and, after days of searching, located it in Ajmer, Rajasthan, around 700 km from Lucknow.

“Officers devised an unusual way to establish contact with her. They coordinated with Civil Hospital and arranged a video call showing her mother, Ruby, as admitted and unwell. Seeing her mother on a stretcher moved the minor, and she immediately disclosed that she was in Ajmer,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Central Vikrant Veer said.

The girl’s family, residents of the Janpath area, approached Hazratganj police after she went missing on August 9. Her father is a labourer. Police registered a case and launched a search.

ACP Hazratganj Rajneesh Verma told HT that the breakthrough came when investigators found that she had made a few silent calls to her family using a number borrowed from a stranger.

“She initially did not believe the police when they told her that her mother was unwell she revealed her location,” the ACP said.

A police team was then sent to Rajasthan, where they safely recovered the girl and brought her back to Lucknow before handing her over to her parents, said station house officer (SHO) Hazratganj Vikram Singh.