Jabalpur: Upset after being scolded by her mother for excessive mobile phone use, a 13-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur allegedly faked her own kidnapping and even demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh through a handwritten note, police said on Monday. 

The girl, a Class 7 student who lives with her mother in Priyadarshini Colony under the jurisdiction of Khamaria police station, left home on Sunday morning without informing anyone.

According to officials, the mother initially assumed her daughter had gone to visit friends or her maternal grandmother and would return soon. But as hours passed without any sign of her, she began making calls and searching the area.

When no leads emerged after several hours, the mother lodged a missing person complaint at the Khamaria police station, prompting police to begin a widespread search. Several teams were deployed at various locations in the city.

During the search, the mother found a handwritten note inside her daughter’s school bag that claimed the girl had been kidnapped. The note, written in Hindi, read, "Your daughter has been kidnapped. If you want her safe, arrange Rs 15 lakh within 15 days. If you inform the police, she will be killed."

The note raised alarm, but also provided the police with a crucial lead. Handwriting analysis revealed that the ransom note matched the girl’s own handwriting found in her school notebooks. Acting on further clues, an autorickshaw driver told the police he had dropped the girl off in the Sadar Bazar area.

Following an extensive search across seven locations in the city, police finally traced the girl to an isolated spot and safely reunited her with her mother. The family had been living separately after the mother’s separation from her husband several years ago.

“Initially, we too believed it could be a kidnapping case. But the handwriting on the note and the statement of the auto driver helped crack the case,” Sarojini Chouksey, in-charge of Khamaria police station, told IANS. “The girl has admitted to writing the note herself. She was counseled and warned not to repeat such acts. No legal action has been taken against her.” (IANS)