How phone tracking led to the missing Tanur girls; crucial information given by Edavanna youth

Tanur/Mumbai: The search for the missing girls from Tanur, which lasted 36 gruelling hours, finally ended, bringing immense relief to their family members and acquaintances. The news that the two missing plus-two students from Tanur had been found at Lonavala railway station in Maharashtra reached the family, bringing a sense of relief.

The follow-up action by the Kerala police and the railway police, who tracked the students' mobile phone location, led to the identification of their whereabouts. The girls are currently in the custody of the railway police, and according to the Kerala police, Tanur police will take them into custody on Friday.

On Friday morning, a police team from Tanur will board a flight from Nedumbassery to Mumbai and then head towards Pune, where the Railway Protection Force (RPF) will hand over the girls to the local police. Considering the mental state of the girls, they will receive counselling, as they had expressed concerns to the police about returning to their families.

The search was further strengthened after crucial information was provided by Rahim Aslam, a youth from Edavanna, whom the girls had met through social media. Rahim was the last person to make calls to both their phones. The police visited his house to verify the information.

Rahim revealed that he had met the girls through social media and that they had expressed an interest in travelling. He joined them from Kozhikode and travelled with them to Mumbai. He then took the girls to a beauty parlour in Panvel, run by a Malayali woman. Rahim conveyed this information to the police, which helped them locate the girls.

The girls, travelling on the Chennai-Egmore Express, were identified by Railway officials from a photo circulated by the Kerala Police. The two students, who had left Tanur's Devadhar Government Higher Secondary School to appear for exams, went missing around 11 AM on Wednesday. The police later received information that they had gone to Panvel from Kozhikode with Rahim on Wednesday afternoon.

The girls arrived at the beauty parlour around 2 PM on Thursday. They were wearing masks and told the parlour owner that they had come to Mumbai for a friend's wedding. Although they said their friend would join them later, the girls left the parlour before their friend arrived. This information was handed over to the Maharashtra Police, the Malayali association, and the Kerala Police. By the time the police and association members arrived, the girls had already escaped and boarded the Chennai-Egmore Express.