Five runaway school students from Jharkhand, headed for Mumbai with stars in their eyes, were caught by police loitering near the Indian Museum on Tuesday night.

Avinash, Manoj, Ramendra, Krishna and Nikhil — all between 11 and 13 years old and Class VI students of Atomic Energy Central School, in Jadugoda, Singhbhum — were driven by the hope of meeting their Bollywood heroes in Mumbai.

“The boys are in the custody of an NGO. Their parents have been informed about this and they are on their way to the city to take them back home,” said an officer of New Market police station.

“It was around 10.30pm when we spotted the boys loitering around Indian Museum. All were well-dressed and were carrying bags,” said Siddhartha Chatterjee, a sub-inspector of New Market police station.

“We became suspicious when they failed to give satisfactory answers to our queries. They said they were going to a friend’s birthday party but had lost their way. We brought them to the police station where they finally admitted to their escapade far away from home,” Chatterjee added.

The five told the police that they had hatched the plan to leave for Mumbai to meet their screen idols 10 days ago.

On Tuesday morning, they left for school as usual but did not attend classes. A classmate, who did not want to be identified, said he had seen them in front of the school gate for a while.

They soon left for Jamshedpur by bus and from there, boarded a Calcutta-bound train. The five arrived in Howrah in the afternoon and decided to leave for Mumbai on Wednesday.

“They went around Victoria Memorial and Nandan and had dinner at a hotel in Esplanade, where they also bought toys from hawkers. They were looking for a hotel when we spotted them,” said sub-inspector Chatterjee.

The five had sought Rs 500 each from their parents, saying their school was organising a picnic. “The parents did not suspect their motive and gave them the money. Avinash told us he and his friends also stole jewellery from their houses and planned to sell them on their way to Mumbai,” said an officer.

The vice-principal of Atomic Energy Central School, A.K. Singh, said: “We are probing the incident. The local police do not have any information about the case.”