Kochi: Kerala Police rescued a 13-year-old girl from a remote village in a Naxal-affected forest region of Odisha following an interstate investigation that took officers more than 4,000 kilometres by road.
The girl, the daughter of migrant workers from Odisha, had gone missing from Methala in Ernakulam district. Her parents lodged a complaint with Kuruppampady police on August 13 after she failed to return home.
Police initially conducted searches across Methala and nearby areas but found no trace of her. Investigators subsequently received information linking her disappearance to Keshav, an Odisha native employed in Salem, Tamil Nadu.
The probe revealed that the girl had befriended another Odisha native working at a company in Salem. A police team travelled there, but could not locate her. The investigation suffered a setback when the mobile phone used by the young man associated with her was switched off.
Acting on the instructions of Ernakulam Rural District Police Chief K.S. Sudarshan, a special investigation team proceeded towards Odisha. Further inquiries indicated that the girl was staying with a young man identified as Alok in Nabagochha village in Ganjam district.
The Kerala team reached Odisha on August 18 and learnt that the village was located inside a Naxal-affected forest, where vehicular movement during the day was considered unsafe.
With the assistance of Bhanjanagar police, officers planned a late-night rescue operation. Eight armed personnel, led by a station house officer, accompanied the Kerala team through nearly 40 kilometres of forest.
Around midnight, the vehicles were stopped about a kilometre from the village. The officers continued on foot in a single file, reached Alok’s house and surrounded it.
The girl was rescued safely and taken into police protection. Police said further legal procedures and inquiries into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance were under way.
