BENGALURU:Six 14-year-old Class IX students at a private school on Magadi Road went “missing” on Monday evening and returned home on Tuesday evening after a 24-hour drama, during which their worried parents filed complaints with the Kamakshipalya police and set off a state-wide alert in all police stations, the Railway police and bus stations to watch out for them.
All the boys wanted to do was to go to Savandurga Fort and Ranganathswami Temple near Magadi town and return after two days. But they did that without informing their parents.The teenagers — all residents of Ranganathpura in Kamakshipalya — left for “adventure” on the pretext of attending tuition classes after school on Monday.
The boys were declared “found” on Tuesday late afternoon only when one of the boys’ relatives watched television channels beaming stories about them having gone missing. Incidentally, all the six boys were staying at that very relative’s place at that moment, and he immediately called the parents to inform them that the boys were at his place. A team of Kamakshipalya police left for Magadi and brought all the six back to Bengaluru about 7 pm on Tuesday.
Parents of six 14-year-old boys, who had gone missing on Monday, were happily reunited with the children on Tuesday late evening. The teenagers had made a jaunt to a nearby temple and a fort, but without informing their guardians. The worried parents had kicked off a statewide search.
Kamakshipalya police said one of the boys, Manish (name changed), had planned to venture to Savanadurga Fort and Ranganathaswami Temple located in Maralagondala village where his grandfather lives, near Magadi. The other five readily agreed to join him as they were desperately seeking such an outing. But they decided not to inform their parents for fear of being denied permission. So they decided to leave on the pretext of going for tuition classes.
They made the trip on a KSRTC bus with just `250
which one of the boys had on him. The bus staff, too, did not suspect anything as all the boys were still in their school uniforms.After reaching Magadi on Monday night, they slept at an under-construction site. In the morning they ventured to Savanadurga Fort and a village fest. Then around afternoon, they reached Manish’s grandfather’s house and had lunch.
It was there that the Manish’s relatives watched television channels beaming news about those very boys having gone missing, and led to their parents being informed.It so turned out, that parents of four boys knew that the boys wanted to visit the temple, but what led to their anxiety was that they left without informing them and they wondered if they would return at all.