Siblings fake kidnapping case after being scolded for missing tuitions

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Two siblings from Fishermen's colony in Mahim who were reported missing on Wednesday returned home on Thursday afternoon. While one of them had their head tonsured, the other had makeup on her face.

The children claimed that they had been abducted by some men in a car. However, the police said that an investigation into the matter revealed that children spent the night in a neighbourhood building and weaved the story about being kidnapped.

The two children, aged 8 and 12 had gone to play in a garden close to their house around 4 pm on Wednesday. The family filed a complaint which said that the children had been out of the house for more than two hours when the family started looking for them.

The complaint said, "The boy had, in fact, come back home later in the evening when everybody else was looking for the children and only his grandmother was at home. He took her to the garden when the grandmother asked him about the girl. She also lost track of the boy in the course of looking for his sister." Mahim police registered a kidnapping case against unidentified people around midnight.

The children returned home while the search was underway. A Mahim police office told Mumbai Mirror, "The boy's head was tonsured. The girl was wearing a sari with some make up on her face. They also had bruises on their bodies. They told the family and us that they were beaten with sticks and taken away in a car."

He said that the children also claimed that there were other children in the car. The police personnel recorded their statements. One of the officers said that when they were together they maintained their previous version. However, when asked separately, "the girl told us that they had gone away because their parents had scolded them for missing their tuition classes the previous day. She also said that the two of them had hidden in a room in the basement of a neighbouring building."

The official also said that the boy had cut his own hair and injured himself. The girl had taken a lipstick and sari from home which she changed into later. The officer also said that the children seemed to have been inspired by some crime based show on television.

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