Police lethargy in tracing missing girls slammed

Slamming such inaction of the police as ‘highly deplorable,’ a division bench comprising Justice S Nagamuthu and Justice Anita Sumanth, said “It is our experience that as and when we issue directions for the appearance of the Superintendents of Police concerned in the habeas corpus petitions, steps are taken only thereafter and  then, the missing minor detenues are produced before this court. This shows that until such directions issued, no effective steps are taken by the other officers to trace out the minor detenues. The instant case is a classic example of the same.” 

As per the case, Revathy had gone missing on December 18, 2015. At that time, she was hardly 16-years-old. A complaint was lodged by her father on December 20, 2015.  But since there was no progress made by the police in tracing the girl, an Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) was filed in May 2016. But since her father died during  the pendency of the HCP, her mother was impleaded. 

Though the petition had come up for hearing on several occasions, the girl was not produced. When the matter was taken up on March 13, 2017, the public prosecutor, narrated the steps taken by the Pennadam police in Cuddalore district, to secure the detenue. At his request, the matter was adjourned by two weeks. But thereafter, since the same story was repeated, the bench directed the Superintendent of Police, Cuddalore, to be present before the court on April 3, 2017 and produce the girl on that day. Following the summons, the minor detenue was produced carrying a three-months old child of her own. 

The police also submitted that the accused who had taken the girl has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO). The bench on finding that the accused who is already married and has a case pending against him for abducting a married woman, said “In our considered view, stringent action need to be taken against the accused in accordance with law.” The bench then disposed the HCP after recording the mother’s submission that she would take care of her daughter and her child.