Form special cells to probe missing person complaints: Bombay HC tells state govt

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the state home department to constitute a special cell at all police stations to find out whereabouts of missing children, married women and senior citizens who had suddenly left their home as they could have been in distress.

The high court said that IG rank officers could head these special cells. The high court also said that the special cell officers must receive training. The court was hearing a petition filed by a mother whose married daughter has been missing for three years.

A division bench of justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and justice Bharti Dangre were hearing a petition filed by an Ambarnath resident and a mother of a victim who is missing since September 2014.

According to the petition, the victim’s husband and her in-laws were harassing her; therefore, she went to her mother’s house and complained against them, but her family advised her to live with her husband.

The victim had also filed domestic violence case against her in-laws at Shivaji Nagar police station at Ambernath.

The court while hearing the petition observed that one-track investigation and a probe would take police nowhere. “The incident took place in 2014, so it is too late to seek assistance from anyone,” the court said.

The court also observed that police machinery has to decide and categorised cases of missing persons.

“The cases where people are missing from matrimonial homes after dispute should be probed in a different manner,” said the court.

The court noted that investigation could not be restricted only to the morgues, hospitals, railway police or finding out if there was an accidental death or suicide.

The court said that the police must seek information from agencies which help women and children in distress.