Delay in FIR in missing of rape victim: Plea for contempt

An NGO today moved the Supreme Court for initiating contempt proceeding against the Delhi Police Commissioner saying the delay in lodging an FIR in the missing of the five-year-old rape victim amounts to "deliberately defying" its order to promptly lodge case of missing children".
The PIL was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and will be heard on Monday.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan sought initiation of contempt proceedings against Delhi Police chief Neeraj Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police of East Delhi Prabhakar and other officials of Gandhi Nagar Police Station alleging they have "deliberately violated the law and January 17 order of the apex court".

The petition alleged that the "inaction of police shows their total non-seriousness about the issue" and such "laxity and slow response is deliberate" on the agency's part.
The apex court had on January 17 directed that the police must register FIR and conduct probe in every case of missing child and a unit of specially trained police officers be formed in each district to handle cases relating to juveniles.
The court had also said appropriate steps must be taken to see that follow up investigation is taken up immediately after the FIR is lodged.
The petition, filed by advocates H S Phoolka and Jagjit Singh Chhabra, said had the Delhi Police been "vigilant and acted with promptness", the gruesome incident of rape of the child in Gandhi Nagar area here could have been averted.

The petitioner also sought the court's intervention for an appropriate direction to the police to formulate a national plan to "tackle the menace of missing children and also to define the term missing children, which has not been defined so far in any statute".