Much to the relief of their families and the men in khaki in Lakhimpur Kheri, the four girls who went missing on their way to school on Tuesday were finally tracked down in Uttarakhand on Wednesday afternoon.
The girls apparently boarded a bus and went to Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. They had switched off their mobile phones, claimed Kheri's district police chief Vijay Dhul who had formed five teams to locate the girls.
He claimed that the girls had left their homes to visit Uttarakhand and were staying in a hotel under Muni ki Reti police station of Tehri Garhwal district.
They have been safely recovered by a police team which went from here, he added.
The Uttarakhand police also helped in tracking down the girls.
The police team is now bringing the girls back to hand them over to their families after recording their statements before a magistrate.
According to the police, technical surveillance was used to track down the girls, three of whom are minors.
One of the girls, 20, a student of Class 12, had left home with Rs 25,000 cash. In Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage, she, along with three minor girls aged between 15 to 16 years, was seen boarding the bus.
The district police chief said, "The bus conductor, who identified the girls, said he had dropped them at Sitapur bus station. It appears from the CCTV footage and the conductor's account that the girls left their homes on their own. We do not see anyone accompanying them."
The girls had all switched off their mobile phones and their last location was traced at Sitapur. The police scanned the CCTV footage of the bus station and railway station and coordinated with their counterparts in Sitapur and Lucknow in the search operations but failed to get any further clues.
Finally, the cops managed to track down the girls' location in Tehri Garhwal after which they sought the help of Uttarakhand police and with their help, all the four were found present in a hotel room.