Mumbai, Mar 11 (IANS): A young man and his minor girlfriend allegedly ended their lives by jumping off a hillock in a north-west suburb of Mumbai, police said here on Saturday.

The man, identified as one Akash Jhate and the 16-year-old girl studying in SSC, were neighbours in the Janupada tribal-dominated locality near Samata Nagar in Kandivali east.

While the boy worked as a housekeeper, the girl was a school student and they reportedly took the extreme step as their families were against their liaison.

The girl's family said that when they woke up in the morning, the girl was missing from the home and they launched a frantic search for her in the vicinity, but failed to trace her.

They approached the Samata Nagar Police to lodge a missing complaint, and being a minor, the police launched investigations into a possible abduction angle.

It was only on Friday afternoon that the police were alerted of the tragedy by a local informing about two bodies found lying at the bottom of a hill there. They were rushed to the Shatabdi Hospital where the doctors declared them dead.

Though no suicide note has been recovered, subsequent police enquiries revealed that the girl claimed to have gone out with a friend, while the boy sent a message to his family saying he was leaving home and would never return.

The bodies of the deceased were sent for an autopsy and later handed over to their respective families for the last rites.