Twenty-one-year-old Puja Upadhyaya, a student of Jamshedpur Women’s College, on Saturday afternoon texted her parents that she was “going away forever” and “wouldn’t return home”, and then switched off all her three smartphones.

Her father, Birsanagar businessman Saroj Kumar Upadhyaya, after failing to track her, filed a missing case with the police on Saturday 11pm.

Upadhyaya left Puja at the Baridih auto-rickshaw stand around 10am on Saturday like he usually did, so that she could take an auto to her Bistupur college. At 3pm the same day, he got Puja’s worrying text.

Birsanagar police station OC Sushil Kumar Kushwaha said they had circulated Puja’s details across the state and put her phone numbers on surveillance. He added that from the way the girl left home, there seemed to be a love affair. “We will know through her call detail record in a day or two about people she spoke to most often,” he said.

Puja’s father said he knew nothing of her personal life. “My daughter is a disciplined girl. Why will she flee home? She may have fallen victim to a foul play,” Upadhyaya said.