Missing person case: HC gives direction to Kanyakumari SP

The Madras High Court today directed the Kanyakumari SP to appoint within two weeks an Inspector exclusively to investigate and trace a man who went missing 19 years back.
Justice M M Sundaresh of the high court's Madurai bench, hearing the habeas corpus petition of the man's mother Gnana Soundari, said the SP himself should supervise the investigation which should be completed in six months and final report filed. He went missing on September 8, 1996 when he was 18-years-old.
The petitioner submitted that some persons informed her that her son, Edwin Sundararaj, had been kidnapped in a car. Though her husband gave a complaint to the police, the police insisted on registering the case as "youth missing case".

Later, her husband, anguished over not being able to trace his son, died in 2004. The police submitted a report in 2007 that they were not able to trace the him. But as she strongly objected to the report, a court at Kuzhithurai directed the police to re-investigate the case.
She alleged that even after the court's direction, the police did not take steps to investigate.
She said she was receiving threatening calls from those suspected to be involved in her son's kidnapping. Though she informed the police about the threat, they had not taken any action, she alleged.
The petitioner wanted the case to be transferred to some other agency as the police was not investigating the case properly.

The judge said the police had not taken any action even after a court gave some directions, and wanted a separate Inspector to be appointed to investigate the case.