An 18-year-old youth was arrested by the Kherwadi police on Thursday for allegedly eloping with his 15-year-old girlfriend. The police followed them till Bangalore by tracing them through their ATM card usage locations.

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However, by that time the couple had left that city and boarded a bus back to Mumbai. The youth was finally nabbed at Kurla terminus.

A case of kidnapping has been registered against the youth. According to the police, the duo were friends and studied in the same school in Bandra. The police swung into action after a case was registered by the girl's parents on Monday.

"The girl's parents approached us when she did not return from school on Monday afternoon. They told us that they suspected a youth with whom she had an affair. They did not approve of their relationship," said a police officer.

When the police inquired with the youth's parents, they got to know that he had also gone missing. He had stolen his mother's ATM card since he did not have any money, informed the police. The duo had carried a mobile phone without a sim card. "We tried to find out the locations where he had used the ATM card and there was a transaction of Rs10,000 from a place in Bangalore," said the police officer. Apart from that, the youth had also made a call to a relative of his from a rickshaw driver's phone in Bangalore. The relative informed his parents about it.

"We had sent a team to Bangalore that searched at least hundred lodges there. Later, we received information that the duo had boarded a bus to Mumbai. We found them at Kurla terminus early morning on Thursday after they alighted from the bus," said Virendra Mishra, DCP, Zone 8.

Medical examinations did not reveal rape and the girl has not spoken about any inappropriate behaviour by the youth, said the police.

Interrogations revealed that the duo had eloped with the intention to travel around and later live together, away from their parents. Since the girl is a minor, the youth was arrested by the police on charges of kidnapping under section 363 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).