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Relatives of the missing girl Eshika Shetty arguing with principal of Sharada Residential School Vidyavanth Acharya in Udupi on Wednesday. 

Relatives and a few residents of Yelanje village staged a protest in front of the Sharada Residential School here on Wednesday to protest over a 13-year-old girl gone missing from the school since November 15.

The girl Eshika S. Shetty, a student of class eight, has been missing since around 8.30 p.m. on November 15. She had returned to her room in the Girls Hostel at 6.30 p.m. complaining of a headache on November 15. But she did not come for the dinner or for the “Weekly Parent Telephone Hour” at 8.45 p.m.

It was then that the hostel warden learnt that she was missing leading to the school booking a missing complaint the same night at around 11.45 p.m. Eshika’s parents were living in Muscat. The Sharada Residential School is 26-years-old. It has strength of 591 students including 406 boys and 185 girls. It follows the I.C.S.E. syllabus. There are 80 CCTV cameras in the school premises.

The school authorities had a tough time in pacifying Eshika’s mother and relatives and residents of her village on Wednesday.

‘CARELESS ATTITUDE’

Speaking to presspersons here, Priya, Eshika’s mother, said that the careless attitude of the school was to blame for her daughter going missing. “When I tried calling her during the Weekly Parent Telephone Hour on November 15, I want not able to get her on phone. I was later told by the school authorities that she was missing and a police complaint had been lodged. I immediately caught a plane from Muscat and came here,” she said.

She said that in a note left behind, Eshika had written that she liked the television actor Faisal Khan and that she wanted to be an actor. She said her relatives had alerted the Mumbai police and also met the actor, who had assured them that he would contact them if Eshika reached him.

PRINCIPAL’S VIEW

Vidyavanth Acharya, School Principal, said that Eishika appeared to have jumped from a wall near the hostel and escaped from the school because two of her clothes were found there. As soon as he came to know about her going missing at 9.15 p.m. on November 15, he and other teachers tried to search her at the Bus Stand and Railway Station. The parents were informed about it at 9.40 p.m. Their search did not yield any results.

Then they gave a police complaint at the Udupi Town Police Station around 10.45 p.m. This was the first time a girl had gone missing from the school. Earlier three times, boys had gone missing and were traced.

“Unfortunately, there is no CCTV camera near the compound wall from where she escaped from the school as no one went there. The police have taken her dairy, in which she used to write and her files. They check her room on November 16,” he said.

‘SEARCH ON’

Meanwhile, the Udupi police are trying to trace the girl. “We are putting all our efforts to trace the girl,” said T.S. Madhu, Sub-Inspector of Udupi Police Station.