On November 23, Wednesday, police in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district rescued a minor Hindu girl from a drainpipe in a field after a nearly nine-hour search. It was learnt that the girl had run away from her school situated in Bilochpura village in the Pilana Block in the Baghpat District of Uttar Pradesh after she was brainwashed into eloping by a youth named Sohail Ansari.
The victim, who belongs to the Dalit community, had, however, altered her mind at the last minute because she feared her family had learned about her plan to elope with Ansari. According to a Swarajya report, the girl did not go to the location where she was supposed to meet the youth. Instead, she went to a field and hid in a drainpipe. She was afraid of being yelled at if she returned home, so she kept hiding in the field until the Baghpat police discovered her and returned her to her parents.
The youth Sohail Ansari, who is 10 years older than the victim, was arrested on charges of kidnapping. The Baghpat police invoked IPC section 363 as well as Section 7/8 of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 3(2)5A of the Scheduled Castes (Prevention of Atrocity) Act (FIR number 306/2022 filed at Singhawali Ahir police station) against the accused.
Baghpat police took to Twitter to inform that the Singhawalu Ahir police station launched a search operation after it received information about the missing girl, who is 15, around 10.30 am on November 23. Teams of five police stations were deployed for her search, besides a dog squad and other units of the police force. She was found around 6.30 pm in an agricultural field.
Speaking about the incident, Baghpat Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun told Swarajya that if the police had not found her in time, it might have proved fatal for the girl. It could get very cold and there was fear of wild animals roaming in the night, he said.