HC asks Delhi Police to take pro-active steps to trace missing children

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said pro-active steps should be taken by the Delhi Police to trace missing children.

A bench of justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said district anti-human trafficking units (AHTU) are currently functioning to investigate cases of children between the ages of three and eight that are missing for four months or more, and the cases where there is suspicion of links to trafficking and organised crime.

The court directed that the AHTUs shall henceforth function as a nodal agency for all cases of missing children in the district concerned and they shall work in close coordination with the local police and other agencies, providing expert assistance to investigating officers in collection and analysis of technical evidence.

"Pro-active steps should be taken by the Delhi Police to curb the menace of missing children. To this end, within a period of 48 hours, an officer not below the rank of an Additional DCP shall be nominated in each district, who shall thereafter hold at least one meeting each month with ACP (AHTU) and the SHOs concerned, to identify sections/ pockets of their respective districts that are worst affected in terms of missing children," it said.

"An appropriate action plan shall be drawn up with inputs from other stakeholders such as NGOs and community leaders for steps to be taken in this regard. The officer concerned shall regularly, that is, at least once a month review the implementation of the plan, making such changes as are necessary depending on the circumstances as may arise," the bench said.

The court asked the Delhi Police to file an action-taken report by the next date of hearing on March 3.

The directions and observations of the court came while hearing a man's plea seeking directions to police to trace his minor daughter aged 15 years, who went missing in October last year.

During the proceedings, the court also looked into the larger issue of kids going missing from Delhi.

On Wednesday, the girl was produced before the high court where she stated that she would turn 18 tomorrow and had willingly gone with a man.

The girl also stated that she does not wish to go with her parents, and has been sent to Sanskar Ashram in east Delhi.

The court directed the police to carry out ossification test of the girl to ascertain her age.