Try to trace missing girl in a week: HC to cops

Mumbai, March 10 After directing Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gaffoor to personally supervise the search for a missing 17-year-old girl last week, the Bombay High Court on Monday asked the authorities to try to trace the girl within a week’s time.
A division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice S A Bobde adjourned the case for a week after it was informed that two special teams formed under the Police Commissioner are tracing the whereabouts of the girl. Additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamat-Pai also told the court that apart from the two teams, the local police and the Crime Branch too were looking for the girl.
The court was also informed that the authorities have visited Uttar Pradesh twice and also checked brothels in Mumbai while another team was tracing some links in Raigad. The court was informed that the police have arrested the brother of the suspect, Dinesh Sharma.
The court was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl’s father Rampyare Yadav.
Yadav had approached the Supreme Court in December 2007 after the police failed to trace his daughter who went missing in September 2007 and after even a High Court directive to the police did not help. “The SC sent the case back to the HC in January this year, saying investigation should be over in a month,” Yadav’s advocate Charanjeet Chanderpal said.
As that probe too has been in vain, the HC last week asked Gaffoor to form special teams to trace the girl as the petition has been pending for a long time.
On September 7, 2007, Reshmi Yadav (name changed), daughter of tabela owner Rampyare Yadav, had gone to drop her eight-year-old brother Rahul to school in Tilak Nagar but never returned home. The same evening, her uncle Ramsajiwan Yadav lodged a missing person's complaint at Tilak Nagar police station. Her father was out of station that day.
When Reshmi did not return the next day, the family, fearing foul play, insisted the police lodge an FIR. However, police refused, saying an FIR was not necessary as a missing person’s complaint had already been lodged. Yadav then moved the HC in October and also complained to Home Minister R R Patil. According Chanderpal, an FIR was subsequently registered on November 10, 2007 following pressure from higher authorities.
Expressindia
Tuesday , March 11, 2008