Delhi HC directs police to submit status report on missing teen

The Delhi High Court has directed police to submit a status report within two weeks on a teenage boy who went missing from K G Marg in 2013.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Vinod Goel also ordered constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising competent officers to probe the matter and issued notice to the Delhi government, UIDAI and others.

The high court also directed the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to provide all the relevant information available with them in respect of the missing 17-year-old boy in a sealed cover before May 21 so that the investigation can proceed in the right direction without losing any more time.

"We are also of the opinion that in the peculiar facts of the present case where almost five-and-half years have elapsed from the date when the petitioners' son went missing, an SIT comprising of competent officers in the field be constituted right away.

"A status report shall be filed by the DCP, Crime branch within two weeks with a tabulated compilation setting out the steps taken over the past five-and-half years to track the petitioners' missing son with a separate list of constructive steps proposed to be taken to track the missing person, without wasting any further time," the bench said.

During the hearing, advocate Rahul Mehra, standing counsel for the Delhi government, told the court that on expiry of nine months reckoned from October 24, 2013, the investigation was transferred to the Crime Branch and till date nothing concrete has emerged.

The high court was hearing a plea filed by the parents of the boy who had filed a habeas corpus plea to track their son who went from home as along as October 24, 2013.

According to the plea, the boy had left their flat at KG Marg here on October 24, 2013 at around 10:30 am and never returned. On the same day at 7.00 pm, an FIR was registered at the Parliament Street police station in respect of the missing person.

"The investigation has been going on since past five-and-half years, but to the utter dismay of parents, no clue about their son has come up. The lawyer for the petitioners says that the petitioners have been running from pillar to post all these years pleading with respondent authorities to trace their son, but to no avail," the court noted.