KOLKATA: Three minor girls who had a craze for K-pop band BTS travelled 200 km from a remote village in Murshidabad district in a bid to meet their musical heroes but their journey was cut short after police spotted them at the bustling Shalimar railway station in Howrah district.
The three teens were planning to reach Mumbai and then take a flight to Seoul, although they had no passport or visa.
Police were put on alert after family members of the three girls, all students of Class IX and XI, lodged a complaint with the local police station. The girls were intercepted by tracking the location of the towers that were delivering signals to their cellphones.
“All three girls are from financially stressed families. Their fathers are either small farmers or daily wage earners. It is surprising that the girls were so much addicted to a band of an overseas country that forced them to leave their families secretly for a mission impossible to achieve,” said a police officer.
After leaving their village of Beldanga in Murshidabad, the three minor girls boarded a train and reached Sealdah railway station. “They arrived at Shalimar station to catch a train to Mumbai. Our counterparts in Murshidabad shared the cellphone numbers of the girls. While tracking the location, we found that they were outside the Shalimar station. A police team was immediately sent there with the photographs of the girls. The team spotted and intercepted them,” said the officer.
During questioning, the girls told police that they first saw a show by BTS on a social media platform and gradually developed the habit of watching the band's latest performances. “We started spending more time on watching them on social media using our cellphones. On many occasions, we were scolded by our parents for watching their performances till late in the night,” one of the girls told police.