Mumbai, August 07: Around 17,000 persons in Maharashtra are missing as per the police record, the state government told Bombay High Court.
Division bench of Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi had asked for data related to missing persons while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by a Dombivali-based woman, whose son is missing since January.
Additional Public Prosecutor K V Saste told the High Court yesterday that there are at least 16,883 missing person cases as of June 30 this year, where the person in question is yet to be traced.
Expressing concern about the large number of unsolved cases, Judges said that Director General of Police S S Virk and Chief Secretary Johny Joseph should come to the court and meet them in the chamber, so that a “strategy to deal with the problem could be devised”.
Justice Nazki made it clear that court was not summoning the two top officers, but only wanted to have a discussion.
Present petition before the High Court has been filed by Ranjana Pawar, whose son Aditya, a standard 9th student, went missing on January 29 this year.
Court asked police to file status report in Pawar’s case within a week’s time. Court has also asked for a break-up of missing person cases across the state, based on a person’s age and sex.
–Agencies–