On Wednesday, Shikha was traced to her maternal uncle’s house in Jaipur. Shikha, a Class VII student of Carmel Convent School, was spurred into running away from her house due to poor academic performance. On Tuesday evening, she left home for tuitions around 7 pm but did not reach the coaching centre.

The intelligence wings of Chandigarh and Punjab Police were put on a high alert. Senior officers, including SSP S S Srivastava, Dinesh Bhatt and other CBI officers reached Soni’s residence. Police searched guesthouses, hotels and inns.

Meanwhile, arrangements were made to keep track of the calls on Soni’s phones fearing that if Shikha was kidnapped, the family might get ransom calls. It was relief for everyone when Shikha’s maternal uncle called from Jaipur to inform that she was with him. He said Shikha was depressed because of her bad performance in a unit test.

Authorities of Carmel Convent School blamed Shikha’s parents for the drastic step saying she was pressurised by her parents to perform better in studies.

DIG Soni, however, had a different take on the incident. “My daughter felt humiliated when the teacher told her that she had got less marks though her father was a senior officer,” he said.