Police trace three Class 6 students of leading Shimla school after they go missing on Outing Day

The three boys had gone missing since Saturday, when they failed to return to the campus by the 5.30 pm deadline for the boarding school’s Outing Day.

Sources said the students are boys hailing from Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Mohali in Punjab, and Karnal in Haryana and that one of them is a distant relative of a minister in a neighbouring state.

The families of the students had arrived in Shimla and accompanied police teams in their search for the trio.

Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Rohit Thakur said, “The safety of the missing students was our topmost priority. Shimla police did excellent work. Indeed, we will see what were the shortcomings on the part of school management, etc.”

The New Shimla police registered an FIR under section 137B (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after the school’s principal filed a complaint.

According to the police, the boys left the school at around 12.05 pm on Saturday and failed to return by 5.30 pm, prompting the school authorities to alert the police.

“The missing students were in school uniform and two of them had left their cell phones in their hostel rooms. Collectively, they were carrying around Rs 3,000 when they left. No staff member accompanied them,” a source said.

Repeated attempts to contact school representatives went unanswered.

A police officer earlier said the boys had gone out on the school’s designated “Outing Day”, when students are allowed to leave the campus for up to six hours. CCTV footage showed the students leaving the school gate at 12.05 pm, after which no trace of them had been found.

“Apart from the missing boys, many other students also went to Mall Road. While some claimed the missing boys were with them, we have checked CCTV footage from Mall Road and adjoining areas but did not find them,” the officer said.

The officer further stated that the school administration had yet to provide any standard operating procedure (SOP) governing how students are allowed to leave the campus on Outing Day. “We have learned that on several occasions, students have also hired private taxis to travel to different places in and around Shimla,” he added.

The police alerted their counterparts in neighbouring districts as well as Punjab and Haryana about the students after they had gone missing.

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