NEW DELHI: Hollywood movies seem to have caught the fancy of teenagers from the North-eastern states, mainly Manipur and Assam.
Recently, two students of class 8 hailing from Manipur were caught while trying to travel illegally to Hollywood in California from Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official said that they were not accompanied by a guardian, which is mandatory as per rules, nor did they have valid documents to travel to the US. They had brought along their passports and tickets, but no visa and no return tickets, he added.
“The kids got to know through social media that people can visit Hollywood to witness movie making. During interrogation, they revealed that they decided to leave for Hollywood last month. They told (sic) that many kids from different schools of Manipur had run away in the (sic) similar manner in the past,” a CISF official posted at IGI said.
Cops responsible for the safety of North-eastern people in Delhi have seen this trend as five such cases have been reported so far, besides some cases from Mumbai. It was also found that these kids stole money from their homes to finance their trips.
“These children were between the age group of 12 and 18 years,” said joint commissioner Robin Hibu, who is Nodal Officer for the North-east community in Delhi. "The kids, who were detained at IGI airport, tried to reach USA from Imphal via Delhi," he said.
Meanwhile, police have found that children, especially girls were flying down to Delhi for another reason. They fall in the net of people befriending them through fake profiles on social media, and reach Delhi to meet them.
“Agencies caught one such girl, Neha (name changed), from Dimapur airport, who left her home to meet a man who became friends with her on Facebook six months back. But when we checked the details, it was found that the man had put a fake photo. He was a 40-year-old man,” a senior official dealing with the case said.