From Our Correspondent
TURA: The 19-year-old girl, who went missing from the Garobadha to Rajabala road at Zekabari on Monday, has been traced to Guwahati and brought back safely to Tura on Wednesday.
She has reportedly confessed to having embarked on a journey to visit Shillong and Guwahati out of ‘curiosity’. The girl from Nogapara village — Lona Mary Sangma — went missing in broad daylight while passing through Zekabari road on Monday. She had left her home to obtain a school educational form.
Following news of her disappearance and unconfirmed reports about an abduction by a gang of criminals, West Garo Hills police swung into action and conducted a massive manhunt to locate her.
The search operation, under direct supervision of an additional Deputy SP deployed in the area, went well into Monday night and the next day.
“It was with source inputs and help of the missing girl’s relatives we were able to trace her to Guwahati on Tuesday evening,” informed district SP Mukesh Kr Singh.
Guwahati police were briefed about the whereabouts of the girl and she was located and brought to Paltan Bazar police station for safe custody while a special police team was dispatched from Tura to bring her back.
Once back in Tura she was questioned by women police officers about her disappearance and she is believed to have confessed to having undertaken the journey on her own free will.
She reportedly confessed that she came up to Tura from Zekabari and from the district headquarters left for Guwahati by public transport on Monday itself.
After staying the night at Meghalaya House in Guwahati she claims to have left for Shillong on Tuesday morning on a ‘sight-seeing’ tour before returning the same evening by which time Tura police were already on her trail. She was handed over to her family and relatives at Tura police station on Wednesday.