Thane: A nine-year-old girl went missing from here and was traced to a child care centre in neighbouring Mumbai within 24 hours and reunited with her parents, police said on Tuesday.
The girl went missing from outside her house in Wagle Estate area of Maharashtra's Thane city on Saturday when she went to buy something from a shop.
Her parents later lodged a police complaint.
The police then registered an offence under Indian Penal Code Section 363 (kidnapping) against an unidentified person, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sardar Patil said.
The Thane police's child protection unit searched government as well as private women and child care centres here and in Mumbai and adjoining Navi Mumbai.
They got information from an NGO here that a nine-year-old girl was recently lodged at the Manav Seva Sangh, working for children's welfare at Matunga in Mumbai, the official said.
The child protection unit then got in touch with the Mumbai-based child care centre and got to know the girl was lodged there, he said.
The police team called the girl's mother at its office here on Sunday. They showed her the child through a mobile video call and the woman confirmed the girl was her daughter, the official said.
He said after the girl got lost, she had boarded a local train and alighted at Dadar in Mumbai where the railway police spotted her and lodged her at the child care centre.
The girl's parents thanked the police team for tracing the child.
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