Guwahati: ‘Inspired’ by a teenager of the state who offered herself as hostage to a gunman to save her school-mates, another teenager in Assam’s North Lakhimpur district ‘faked’ her abduction to win praise.
Reports said here that 13-year-old Tutumoni Goala, a student of a local school in Lahimpur, had gone missing after leaving home for school last morning.
The girl told police and media that four young men and a woman had pulled her inside a car and drove off.
After traveling a short distance, the car stopped and when the men alighted, the woman inside asked the girl to escape and she managed to run away from her abductors.
Lakhimpur police launched a rigorous search to nab the abductors after the recovery of the girl.
However, after thorough interrogation of the girl and other suspects, the police were convinced that Tutumoni had cooked up the story.
“There were gaps in her statement. After intense grilling, she confessed to faking her abduction,” said Lakhmipur superintendent of police PK Bhuyan.
“She was perhaps inspired by the story of Gunjan Sharma and made up the abduction drama to be on TV so that her fame would make her schoolmates stop teasing her,” he said.
Tutumoni had failed in her class 8 exam in December and had become a victim of teasing at school.
She had even sought a transfer to another school but her parents disagreed.
Tutumoni’s ‘inspiration’ Gunjan, an eighth standard student of Simaluguri Kendriya Vidyalaya in Sivasagar, was taken hostage by a criminal after initially hijacking the school van in which Gunjan was traveling in with about 10 other junior students on December 4 last.
Gunjan, who had offered her as hostage to save the junior students, managed to reach a village the next day.
The state government has instituted a bravery award in her name and Gunjan will herself be the first recipient. (UNI)