Seven-year-old girl missing for 4 days, cops clueless

The mysterious disappearance of a 7-year-old girl from Andheri (West) on Tuesday morning is giving the DN Nagar police sleepless nights. Pooja Gaud, a resident of Karnataka welfare society in Andheri, was on the way to Cama Road Municipal School on January 22 at 8 am with her elder brother Rohit Gaud (10) when she vanished without a trace.

Pooja Gaud

Four days have passed and the DN Nagar police are still grasping at straws in an effort to locate the missing girl. Pooja is a Std II student and Rohit studies in Std IV. The brother and sister always went to school together, but on Tuesday, the girl suddenly handed her schoolbag over to her brother and ran away. Rohit was bewildered at first and by the time he recovered and began to run behind Pooja, she had vanished.

Cama Municipal School in Andheri (West) where Pooja Gaud studies in Std II

"She started running while we were on the way to school. I ran behind her, but she was too quick and I lost sight of her. I thought she had run towards school, but she did not turn up there, nor did she return home. When I reached school, I asked my teacher and the watchman if they had seen Pooja, but they said they hadn't," Rohit said.

Pooja's father Santosh Gaud is a very worried man. He said, "I came to know that Pooja is missing after Rohit came home and informed that she hadn't showed up at school. We don't have any enemies, who could have kidnapped her, nor are we rich enough to be targeted for ransom. I just hope my girl returns home safely."

The investigating officer of DN Nagar police station said on condition of anonymity, "We are investigating all angles to ascertain where Pooja could have gone, or whether she could have been kidnapped. There are many swanky societies near her school, but none of them have CCTV cameras installed covering the gates or outside. We are trying our best to locate the child."