Gujarat police trace missing teen to Shivamogga, arrest accused
The police attached to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of Vadodara in Gujarat, investigating the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl, travelled nearly 1,200 km to
The police attached to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of Vadodara in Gujarat, investigating the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl, travelled nearly 1,200 km to Shivamogga, rescued the girl, and arrested the man accused of luring her away. The accused, also a native of Gujarat, was working as a priest at a Jain temple here. Read | Gujarat Police rescue missing teen from Karnataka after five-month search The girl’s parents had filed a missing person complaint with the police in Gujarat in December 2025. The police traced the accused and the victim through technical surveillance and zeroed in on the temple where he was employed. The temple, run by a trust, is located on the terrace of a house in a residential locality in the heart of the city.
The accused, Sunil Kumar Kesarisinh Bariya, had allegedly introduced the girl to the employer as his wife. A representative of the temple trust, on whose premises the temple is located, told The Hindu that the priest had been sent to Shivamogga by a contact in Gujarat. “There are many people from Gujarat, trained as priests, working at Jain temples across the country. We wanted a priest and hired him. He arrived with a girl and introduced her as his wife. When we enquired about her age, he maintained that she was 19 years old,” he said. “We checked his birth records and gave him the job. However, we did not know about the girl, since we had not employed her,” the employer said, and added that the trust provided them with accommodation.
The employer said he learnt of the case only when the police arrived at his doorstep. “I noticed a few people moving around suspiciously near our house. I was about to inform the local police about them when the local police themselves came and told us that the people were, in fact, the Gujarat police,” he said. He then took the police to the house where the priest and the minor girl were staying. “The police informed us about the case, and they took both of them along," he stated. Shivamogga Superintendent of Police B. Nikhil told The Hindu that a team from the Vadodara Crime Branch had rescued the victim, secured the suspect, and taken both of them to Vadodara, Gujarat.
Since the incident, the temple trust has been cautious about appointments. The office-bearers have decided to check the records thoroughly before making fresh appointments. “Now, we have another person as priest, and the couple also stays in the same house. We have checked the records, and both are adults," he added.
The BriefWire