10-year-old girl elopes with 16-year-old boy after meeting on Instagram in Gujarat
Authorities found that the girl had been using her mother's phone to access Instagram, where she had contacted the boy.
A 10-year-old girl from Gujarat eloped with a 16-year-old boy after connecting with him on Instagram. However, the two were later caught by the police in a nearby village, hours after the girl's family filed a complaint, India Today reported on Saturday.
The investigation revealed that the pair had met on Instagram and developed a romantic relationship. On December 31, the girl, a Class 5 student, went missing from her home in Dhansura village. After an extensive search, her family filed a police complaint, fearing she had been kidnapped.
Police discovered that the girl and the boy, who lived in a different village, had been communicating frequently over the phone after meeting on Instagram. On the day she went missing, the two, with the help of three friends, planned and ran away.
The girl's father was unaware of social media. Authorities found that she had been using her mother's phone to access Instagram, where she had contacted the boy. Following the complaint, police traced the girl and returned her to her family. A case has been registered based on the family’s report.
Both minors have been sent to a juvenile home.
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Similar incidents
Another similar case surfaced last year in Madhya Pradesh, where a 15-year-old girl eloped with a 27-year-old man she met on a social media platform and fell in love with.
According to an India Today report, the couple even threatened their parents if a wedding ceremony was not arranged.
In another incident, reported by The Times of India, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) tracked down a minor girl who had left home on September 25 without informing anyone in Madhya Pradesh's Nagpur. The girl had allegedly eloped with an auto driver and later married him once she turned 18.
According to police, the girl had moved to Nagpur with her mother after her alcoholic father used to harass them. They lived in a rented house beside the teenager's maternal uncle's home. In September, when the girl was 17, she went missing, prompting her mother and relatives to search for her without success.
Eventually, they approached the MIDC Police Station, where a kidnapping case was filed. AHTU then began its investigation and discovered that the girl had eloped with an auto driver.
Police explained that the teenager, who had completed her Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), used to take an auto to school and formed a friendship with the 24-year-old driver, Imran. "The duo had been in a relationship for the last two years. They fled their homes just around 10 days before the girl would turn 18. They stayed in Gondia for a few days at the house of Imran's maternal grandmother and later got married at a temple when the girl turned 18," a police officer was quoted as saying by The TOI.
