Three motorcycle-borne men abducted a 14-year-old girl in front of her mother in daylight, throwing Patna police's claims of proper law and order to the winds allegedly

The girl, a student of Class VIII at St Joseph's Girls School in Barh sub-division of Patna, was forcibly picked up around 7.30am in front of the main gate of the school as her mother watched in horror.

The police have not been able to find the girl but claimed to have nabbed one of the three accused.

Mother Kiran Devi said her daughter was being harassed by one of the three men, identified as Nitish Kumar, since the past fortnight.

"We live in Salempur (around a km from the school). My daughter had told me that Nitish has been troubling her and also followed her everyday. For the past 15 days, I have been accompanying her to the school. On Monday, as soon as we reached the school gate and while she was about to get inside, three men came on a motorbike. Before I could understand anything, two of them caught hold of my daughter, forced her to sit on the bike and fled. One of the men was gagging her to stop her from calling for help. One of them was Nitish. While two men drove off with her, another one ran away. The incident occurred so fast that I couldn't react. There were not too many people around because the school assembly session had already started. The bike was white and the last digits were 1224," Kiran said.

Soon after, some people arrived at the site seeing Kiran screaming. They took her to Barh police station where a complaint was lodged. "Nitish lives in Kazichak, very close to my place. We are simple people and it is my request to the police to find her, as I fear the worse," the mother said.

The police are not ruling elopement. "Two of the accused, identified as Nitish and Sonu, are known to the girl. It could be an affair but we aren't taking chances. One of the accused has been nabbed but we will reveal his name once the girl is recovered," Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said.