Court asks police to take action on missing children

NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought an action-taken-report from Delhi Police within eight weeks on the high number of missing children in the capital. It also asked the police to find out whether any organised gang was behind the incidents.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan directed the police to investigate the existence of different gangs and take action against them. The Bench also directed the police to share the information with the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) about 489 children who have gone missing since November last year and are not yet traced.

The directions came following allegations levelled by DLSA that the police were not co-operating in preparing the report as sought by the court. Earlier, the Bench had directed DLSA to monitor as to whether police register FIRs in the missing children cases.

The court also directed the police to probe if the children were kidnapped for trafficking and to prepare a data study on how children from various neighbouring states were able to come to the city.

The bench Sep 16 last year had directed the police to register FIRs immediately after receipt of complaint from the victim’s family and upload the information on its website. The Bench had asked DLSA to constitute a team of lawyers and police personnel to provide legal assistance to the parents.

Following the directions, the city police had constituted a special investigating team under the Crime Branch and DLSA also set up a team of 15 lawyers to help the parents. Taking suo motu cognizance of a report that every day more than 15 children go missing from Delhi and that police have failed to maintain data and a record of cases, the court had directed the police to register the cases and not harass the parents.