Telangana girl travels 33 hours in free bus to escape hostel return

The 12-year-old girl's outing came an end at last in the wee hours of Friday, when police teams located her in Jubilee bus station in Hyderabad

Karimnagar: Free travel for women in RTC buses in Telangana came in handy for this 12-year-old girl to venture out on a travel binge. The motivation for this, however, was the disinclination of the girl to go back to the hostel from her grandparents place.

The young girl’s outing came an end at last in the wee hours of Friday, when police teams located her in Jubilee bus station in Hyderabad, bringing down curtains on a 33-hour drama with the anxious parents and worried police teams searching for her.

---

In all, the girl, whose name is being withheld, has traveled non-stop for 33 hours hopping from one bus to another. Apparently, none took interest in her as the Government had made travel free for women in RTC buses.

The eighth class student hailed from Vidyaranyapuri and was studying in a private school while staying in the hostel. She had gone to her grandmother’s house in Peddapalli for Christmas holidays and was to return to her hostel on Wednesday as mandated by her father.

Her grandfather accompanied her upto the bus station and after ensuring that she got onto a bus at 11 am and sent details of the bus to her father Kanukuntla Narsimham, who is an ex-serviceman, hailing from Utoor village of Manakondur mandal and was living in Karimnagar.

The girl, apparently was not interested to go back to the hostel and she got down at Bommakal crossroads on Karimnagar outskirts instead of Mancherial chowk where her father was waiting. She went to the Karimnagar bus stand in an autorickshaw and boarded Hyderabad bus.

Meanwhile, Narsimham, who was waiting for his daughter at Mancheiral chowk, enquired with the conductor about his daughter as she was not found in the bus. Conductor informed that she got off at Bommakal flyover-bridge.

Narsimham immediately rushed to the Bommakal crossroads, but could not find her. He approached the police and police teams began investigation by checking the CCTV cameras fixed at bus stands and other localities besides circulating the photos of the girl on social media.

After seeing the photos of the girl on social media, one Abhilash from Gangadhara informed the police that the girl had travelled in a bus along with him from Hyderabad to Gangadhara. When he asked where she was going, the girl informed him that she was going to Jagtial.

Based on the information given by Abhilash, police came to an understanding that she was traveling in buses from one place to another and sent teams to Jagtial, Korutla and JBS bus stands.

A team that went to Hyderabad found the girl getting down from the Nizamabad bus at 1 am on Friday and alerted her family members. She was handed over to her family members after conducting a health checkup.