NEW DELHI: The family of the 15-year-old girl whose alleged abusive remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar went viral was not at their Noida residence on Tuesday, while local police said they had received no complaint alleging that the family was being harassed, according to PTI news agency.Security guards and maintenance staff at the housing society in Sector 168, where the girl and her mother live, said they had not seen the family and were unaware of their whereabouts.Speaking to the media, a security guard said, “The family had remained withdrawn since the video surfaced, and personnel from the Delhi and Noida police had visited the residence on a few occasions.”Reacting to the family’s claims of harassment, an officer at Noida’s Expressway police station said no complaint had been received regarding any such incident within its jurisdiction.The officer said Noida Police had registered a Zero FIR after receiving the complaint and transferred it to Delhi Police since the alleged incident took place in the national capital.“The family has not been in contact with us since then and has not shared any information or complaint with the local police,” the officer said, adding that the family may have temporarily shifted to Faridabad in neighbouring Haryana.The development came days after the girl’s mother appealed to Prime Minister Modi to forgive her daughter, saying the family had apologised multiple times and that the minor had been influenced during the protest.Speaking to the media on August 1, the mother said she was thankful to the prime minister for publicly forgiving her daughter following the incident.She also requested Modi to consider restricting children’s access to social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook for those aged between 10 and 20 years, saying “minors should be kept away from protests and political activities as they can be easily influenced.”The mother further alleged that police personnel had repeatedly visited their residence after the video went viral, despite the family’s apology.She appealed to the prime minister to intervene, claiming that the FIR had wrongly mentioned her daughter’s age. She said the girl was 15 years old and requested that the case be withdrawn so that she could “live peacefully”.The family’s lawyer, Anil Kumar, told the media that the girl was a juvenile and alleged that the complaint incorrectly described her as a 25-year-old woman working in a salon.“The FIR had been registered without a proper preliminary verification and had that been done, the FIR would not have been registered at all,” he added.The controversy began after a video allegedly showing the girl using abusive language against the prime minister during a Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar went viral. The youth-led protest was held against paper leaks and alleged irregularities in the education system and sought the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who later stepped down.The girl later released an apology video on social media, saying she had been “influenced”, was “extremely embarrassed and ashamed”, and that it was her “first and last mistake”.Prime Minister Modi later said he had forgiven the students who allegedly abused him and his late mother, adding that they should be guided in the right direction instead of being punished.Noida Police registered a Zero FIR under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and transferred it to Delhi Police as the alleged offence took place in the national capital.Delhi Police sources said on Monday that the Zero FIR was still under examination and had not yet been converted into a regular FIR. They also clarified that no separate FIR had been registered in Delhi in the matter so far.
