Born to a Khasi mother and a non-tribal father, the 22-year-old college student travelled all the way to Bangalore to meet Sameer Gafoor in person, only to realise that she had been “abducted” by him.
Meghalaya police sources today said the Karnataka police rescued the college student from a place 300km away from the Karnataka capital. Further details on how she was rescued were awaited, they added.
The Karnataka police informed the East Khasi Hills superintendent of police, L.B. Rapthap, last evening that the girl had been rescued.
Agnes Kharshiing, the president of Civil Society Women’s Organisation here, who has been following the case, said Shenaz Rymbai, the girl’s mother, was likely to go to Bangalore to bring the girl back.
“The East Khasi Hills SP asked me to inform Shenaz about her daughter. I have told her,” Agnes said.
The Karnataka police told the East Khasi Hills SP that Gafoor had “married” the girl a week back though it is not known whether the marriage was consensual.
The police said Gafoor, who is afflicted by polio, was an autorickshaw driver though the latter had told the girl that he was running some big business establishment in Bangalore.
Gafoor and his friends initially demanded Rs 5 lakh for the release of the girl and made repeated phone calls to her mother in Shillong fro the money.
Gafoor told the Karnataka police that the call for ransom was made by one of his friends.
Shenaz had filed an FIR with the Nongmynsong police outpost here on the night of June 29 after her daughter did not return home from Umshyrpi College.
She said that her daughter and Gafoor had been chatting online for several months. He had apparently insisted that the girl should come to the Karnataka capital to meet him by end-June.
On June 29, the girl boarded a Guwahati-Bangalore flight with Rs 15,000. She was received at the airport by Gafoor and his relatives. They asked her to wear a burqa and speak in Hindi.
When her mother called on her mobile phone, a man who did not identify himself demanded Rs 5 lakh to release the girl unharmed.
A relative of the Rymbai family was sent to Bangalore and co-ordinated with the Karnataka police to track down Gafoor and his relatives.