Prodded by a neighbour to seek an audience with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for help in pursuing higher studies, a 14-year-old schoolgirl ran away from home in Theni and was rescued by the police at the Koyembedu bus terminus here.
The police found the Class X student of a government school loitering at the Koyembedu bus terminus on Sunday. After hearing her version, they produced the teen before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Tuesday.
When CWC officials, including chairperson Agnes Shanthi, questioned her, she said she had come all the way to Chennai to meet the CM.
If the girl’s version is to be believed, it was a neighbour who had suggested that she meet the CM. He said his daughter got good education and became a police sub-inspector after the CM helped her, and urged the teen to do an encore. In fact, the neighbour helped her board the bus from Theni to Chennai, she claimed.
The girl wants to go back home as her school exams are slated to begin on Wednesday. “Before returning home, she perhaps wants to meet the chief minister to seek help for higher studies. Like her neighbour’s daughter, who went on to become an SI, she wants to become a teacher,” said Sheila Charles Mohan, a CWC member.
At the time of going to Press, there was no clarity on her family background and health. Officials though claimed she was born to her father’s second wife.
The Chennai chapter of the CWC intends to send the girl to its counterparts in Theni, who in turn would identify her parents and hand her over to them.