FB crush runaways found in Ranchi- Minor Bengal girl and HP boy met over Facebook found at Ranchi

The rescued minors at the Childline kiosk at Ranchi railway station on Thursday. Telegraph picture

TT,Ranchi, Dec. 8: A boy and a girl, who had fled their homes in Bengal and Himachal Pradesh after apparently liking each other online, were tracked to Ranchi railway station today after the girl's father alerted police once he got wind of their meeting place from her Facebook account.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) rescued the two minor teenagers - the 17-year-old boy and the 13-year-old girl - from Ranchi station this afternoon around 3.

They were found sitting together on a platform.

The girl's father, a state government employee in Chinsurah, Bengal, said he had lodged an FIR two days ago after his daughter went missing, but it was her Facebook account, which he accessed with help of her friends that put him on the right track. "In her Facebook, the boy, who hails from Manpura in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, asked my daughter to come to Ranchi. So I decided to come here and search for her," said the father.?

Sub-inspector K.K. Singh of RPF said the teenagers were handed over to Childline.

Childline coordinator Leo Ignatius Kerketta said the case was very sensitive because the girl was a Class VII and the boy had dropped out after completing his matriculation.

"While counselling the two, we realised both felt unloved at home. Both met over Facebook through friends and started liking each other. The boy has some connection with Gumla where he lived for some time as a child and hence knew about Ranchi. They had no plans to get married soon. They just wanted to see each other," said Kerketta.

He added that the girl's parents had reached Ranchi. "The boy is not speaking much. He just said he was fatherless and he fought with his mother after which he left home. So far we have not been able to contact his family in Himachal Pradesh. He seems to be in shock, but we will counsel him," Kerketta said.

Asked, the girl's father admitted he and his schoolteacher wife could give little time to give at home.

"She is the eldest of our two daughters. We need to understand why our eldest daughter took this drastic step and where we went wrong," the father said.