In a feather in the hat from the police in Mumbai, the scouts from unit 6 of the city’s crime department tracked a minor girl of Indian origin – who had disappeared from Sweden – to her Instagram friend who lived at the downmarket Cheetah Camp at Trombay in northeast Mumbai

Within a week after Interpol issued a yellow note about the disappearance of a Swedish girl of Indian origin, a team of crime scene scouts from the Mumbai police tracked down an Instagram friend of the missing girl who lives in Subhash Nagar in Trombay’s Cheetah camp area .

“After our police tactfully asked her Instagram friend, the boy revealed that the Swedish girl lived in Subhash Nagar. Afterwards, our police tracked down the place and took care of the girl safely and handed her over to the orphanage in Dongri in Mumbai. Crime Branch immediately notified the Swedish embassy and Interpol in New Delhi about a safe rescue of the missing Swedish girl, says a senior police officer.

The crime department requested help from the Swedish embassy in New Delhi, InterPol and other authorities to get in touch with the parents of the rescued girl. Her father Saradar Tamar, who flew down to Mumbai from Stockholm last Friday, identified his daughter. After producing relevant documents and also the No Objection Certificate (NOC) issued by the Mumbai police, the authorities at the Dongri orphanage handed over his daughter to him.

After receiving custody of his daughter, the father flew back to Sweden today, which ended almost a fourteen-day long drama. It is not immediately known how the minor girl reached Mumbai from Sweden, if she had valid travel documents, if she was kidnapped or lured and held captive in the city. It is also not known yet how she became friends with the so-called Instagram friend based in Mumbai.

The facts that have emerged so far are that her parents had submitted a report to Skpepparbacken’s police station in Sweden on 27 November.

After the report, Skpepparbacken’s police alerted the Swedish embassy and Interpol, New Delhi, which led the rescue of the missing girl.

The team from unit-6 from the Crime branch that tracked the Swedish girl to her Instagram friend’s place consisted of Mangalsingh Chavan, S Meera Deshmukh, Pona and Kolekar.