Use social media in all missing cases: HC to police

To ensure missing persons are traced soon enough, the Delhi High Court today directed the Delhi Police to flash photographs of such persons on the social media "without fail".
The direction from a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Deepa Sharma came after the police said they were thinking of adopting such a step to trace a speech-and-hearing impaired woman who went missing from a metro station here a week ago.
"We are of the view that the use of technology, which is already available, to circulate photos on social media should be resorted to immediately in all cases without fail," the bench said.

Senior standing counsel of Delhi government Rahul Mehra said he has asked the Commissioner of Police to incorporate this step as part of the standing order for such cases.
The court also made the Delhi Metro and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) a party and sought to know their stand by May 11 on how the 19-year-old woman managed to exit the station without a travel token.
"How did she exit the station without a token? There were security personnel there. What were they doing? Why were they not vigilant? Had they been vigilant they could have rescued her. They should be hauled up," the bench observed orally.

The police in its status report has said it has taken steps, including making announcements in the nearby colonies, to trace the woman.

It also said it has set up a special investigative team (SIT) at the local level and examining the possibility that the woman could have been taken to neighbouring states or being trafficked as she was in a vulnerable state.
Her photographs have been flashed to all the PCR vans so that they can also be on the lookout for the missing woman, Mehra told the court.
The court had yesterday taken cognisance of a news report about the woman going missing after getting off at Adarsh Nagar metro station and asked the police about steps taken to trace her. It had also sought a status report from the police.

On April 21, the woman was travelling with her family and was unable to get down with them at Jahangirpur Metro Station here, the report, referred to by the court, had said.
As per the CCTV camera footage at the next metro station at Adarsh Nagar, the woman got down there and exited the station but has been missing since then.
The woman's mother was quoted in the report as saying that they were returning home from LNJP Hospital after a routine check-up of the woman when the incident occurred.