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The girls reached the school around 6.30 am for the Independence Day function and were expected to return home by around 10.30 am. (Representational image)
Three Class 9 girls from a private school in Patiala, Punjab, went missing after attending an Independence Day function on Saturday and were located in Haryana by Sunday afternoon, the police said.
“Our teams recovered the girls from the Panipat railway station. They are being brought back,” Senior Superintendent of Police Varun Sharma said.
Police sources said they tracked the girls’ digital footprints and monitored their social media activity, which helped trace their location. “As per CCTV footage, the girls had left the school on their own. If anyone is found to be involved in this incident, the police will take action against them,” said a police officer.
According to their parents, the 14-year-old girls reached the school around 6.30 am for the function and were expected to return by around 10.30 am. However, none of the three reached home, and their parents approached the Civil Lines police on Saturday afternoon.
One of the parents said, “Since LKG, my wife or I had been dropping our daughter and even picking her up from inside the school campus. On Saturday, my wife was supposed to pick her up, but her Scooty got punctured on the way. Our daughter even called my wife from the school reception at around 10.28 am, asking where she was and saying that she was waiting for her. But when my wife reached the school, my daughter was not there on the campus.”
Another parent said the daughter usually travelled by an autorickshaw arranged for pick-up and drop-off. “The autorickshaw driver kept waiting outside the school for nearly 20 minutes, but my daughter never came out of the gate where she would normally board the autorickshaw,” the parent said.
The girls have reportedly been studying at the school since kindergarten.
CCTV footage shows girls boarding autorickshaw
The parents said they were informed about CCTV footage showing all three girls leaving the school campus through another gate.
Sources said that in another CCTV recording, the girls were seen near the Bhakra Canal on Nabha Road, where they allegedly boarded an autorickshaw. They were later reportedly spotted near the Patiala bus stand, according to CCTV footage being examined by the police. However, their current whereabouts remained unknown till the filing of this report.
The parents said the girls did not have mobile phones with them when they left the school, as their phones were at home.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised over the security arrangements at the school, particularly how the three girls were able to leave the campus through another gate without being stopped or questioned by security personnel.
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