CHANDIGARH: Three Class VI students of one of the country’s most prestigious and oldest boarding schools in Shimla have gone missing since yesterday when they went out for their regular weekly outing. The parents allegedly received threatening calls from a US-based number.
Sources said the three missing students have been identified as Vedansh Bharti from Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Angad Lather from Karnal in Haryana, and Hitender Singh from Mohali in Punjab.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered at the New Shimla Police Station on charges of kidnapping of minor children under Section 137(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
A police official said that a case has been registered on the basis of the complaint submitted by the school principal, in which he stated that the three students had moved out of the school on the outing day towards Mall Road in Shimla but did not return before the scheduled time. The boys left the school at 12.09 pm on Saturday and did not return by 5 pm.
The police have now deployed drone mapping of the entire area, and the last known location of the students was near the school. The CCTV footage of the area is also being scanned for other vital clues. Witnesses confirmed that they saw the students at different locations on Mall Road, Shimla, said sources.
Sources claimed that the parents of the missing children have been informed and have reached Shimla. A search for the students of the private school is underway.
According to the information, all the parents of the missing students had allegedly received a threatening phone call yesterday evening from a US-based number claiming that their children were in the custody of dangerous people. “The families of all the three students are politically well connected,” said an official.