I'puram: 12-year-old girl disappears from home

A 12-year-old girl disappeared from her home in Shakti Khand 3, Indirapuram, under mysterious circumstances on the afternoon of February 13.

The missing girl has been identified as Archie Yadav, a Class VI student of Vanasthali Public School, Vaishali. The girl had returned from school around 2:30 pm. The bus stop where she got down is around 500 m from the house.

"Her mother, Sudha, couldn't go to pick up Archie that day," recounted Subhash Yadav, Archie's father, who has a tax consultancy firm in Noida. "But after Archie came back home, her mother left to pick up her older sister, Pallav, from the bus stop. Archie asked her to lock the door from outside, as she had to go to the washroom. Her mother told her she had left a spare key of the door for her, in case there was any emergency. After that, she left.”

The girl's mother got a little late coming back home, as the school bus was late. "Within 15 minutes of leaving home, my wife called up Archie to let her know she would be late. She also asked her to eat a banana in case she was hungry,” added Yadav.

The missing girl, Archie Yadav 

But when the mother got home, she saw the door of the house locked from outside and the keys lying on the stairs nearby. When she entered the house, she couldn't find Archie and called Yadav around 3 pm.

A CCTV camera installed near the staircase showed the girl leaving the house in her regular clothes. She was seen crying, and running in the direction opposite to the bus stop. "It looks suspicious. We think some call was made on the landline, and it prompted her to leave like that. Maybe she was told that her mother had met with an accident — or something similar," said Pradeep Tripathi, SHO, Indirapuram police station.

However, no one suspicious was seen in the CCTV footage reviewed by the police. Also, no evidence of forced entry or foul play has been found so far.

"We are trying to track her. The problem is that she does not own a phone, and the parents deny hostility with anyone. Neither do they suspect anyone,” added Tripathi.

The crime branch and members of the forensics team visited the Yadav residence on February 14 morning. The house was on the second floor of the building on Plot No 145.

When asked whether his daughter could be involved with someone who could have influenced her, the father said that both his children kept away from social media and were not even on Facebook. “My older daughter is in Class XI, and she still doesn't own a phone. We never felt the need to give her one. How could someone possibly influence her?" he said, looking perplexed.

"It has been over 24 hours and the police have still not given us any updates. I am slowly losing hope," he added.

The police have not ruled out kidnapping, and an FIR under Section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the IPC has been registered at the Indirapuram police station.

The incident has left the residents worried.

Asha Shrivastava, a Shakti Khand resident, and a mother of two, told City Spidey that she never left any of her children alone out of similar fears.