Patna, July 6: A teenaged girl missing for almost a month now, has allegedly been kidnapped.

Nineteen-year-old Priyanka Kumari, a BCom, first year student of Arvind Mahila College disappeared from her home in the Saidpur area under Kadamkuan police station on June 7.

The family lodged a missing case with regard to the disappearance on June 8. On the evening of July 4, the family apparently received a phone call from a Tata Indicom number, which said the girl would be killed if the family did not cough up Rs 2 lakh.

No phone call has arrived since then. Though the cops are not divulging much about the case, sources say it is a case of elopement and not abduction.

Vinod Mehta, the father of the girl, who is a businessman, today refused to make any comment on the matter. A relative, though, said the phone call had scared them.

“She had gone out for some work on June 7 but never returned. The family searched for her everywhere and then a missing case was lodged at the Kadamkuan police station. The police said investigations were on but even after so many days, they have not been able to make any breakthroughs,” a relative of the girl said.

Two days back, at around 10pm, the family received a call in which the caller demanded a hefty sum as ransom if they wanted to see the girl alive, the family claimed.

“The police, during the investigations found that the phone number belongs to the Frazer Road branch of the ICICI Bank. We were very confused and went to the bank to check. There we came to know that a cross connection had occurred in the telephone lines. The whole thing is very confusing. But it is a fact that the family got a threat call,” a family member added.

Though no police officer came on record giving details about the incident, police sources said the girl had eloped with one Munna, who is pursuing an engineering course in Bhopal.

Sources said that both of them were having an affair and that the girl had fled.

“This doesn’t look to be a case of kidnapping for ransom. The police investigation hints at the girl fleeing from her home with her lover. The ransom call can very well be a ploy to take money from the family or even get the girl back home. The police are investigating the matter from all angles. The phone number is being traced. It seems there was a cross connection and this angle is also being looked into,” an officer of the police station said.

Today, the director-general of police, Neel Mani, during a review meeting had asked the cops to take special care on kidnapping for ransom cases.

“We just want Priyanka to come back home. The family is not very affluent. The police should take some concrete steps to ensure that the girl comes back unharmed,” the family member said.