A 17-year-old girl, who failed in her annual undergraduate examination, escaped from Indore to neighbouring Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh after faking her own kidnapping story as she feared her parents would scold her, police said on Sunday.

The girl, who was in the first year of a Bachelor of Arts (BA) course at a college here, was handed over to her family on Saturday after being brought from Ujjain, located about 50 km from Indore, they said.

"The girl's father lodged a complaint on Friday night stating his daughter was abducted from near a temple in Indore while she was on way home from the college, hours after the exam results were announced," Indore's Banganga police station inspector Rajendra Soni told PTI.

The complainant stated his daughter called him from an unknown number and informed she had been kidnapped in Indore, the official said.

She told her father that a college faculty member had dropped her to a square near the temple after which she boarded an e-rickshaw.

The girl also told her father that the rickshaw driver took her to a secluded place and put a cloth over her mouth due to which she fell unconscious, the inspector said.

"When the CCTVs footage of the area mentioned by the girl was checked, her claim was found to be wrong,” he said.

“In the meantime, the police got information about a girl sitting alone at a restaurant in Ujjain and her photo matched with the one provided by the complainant,” the official said.

The girl was later brought to Indore and her bag was checked. An Indore-Ujjain bus ticket along with a bill of a restaurant in Ujjain was found in it, he added.

A policewoman subsequently counselled her.

Soni said the girl told the counsellor that she escaped and cooked up her kidnapping story as she was not in a position to face her parents after failing in the final examination of her first year BA course. She feared they would scold her, the official said.

The girl has been handed over to her parents, the police said.

Source: PTI