With 2,586 child missing cases reported in Chennai from 2011 to 2015, the city tops the list of missing children in the State. The cases reported in the capital alone constitute 17.57 per cent of the total number of cases reported in the State.
According to a consolidated report submitted by the State government to the Madras High Court in view of a recent direction on ‘Missing children reported, traced, and untraced from 2011 to 2015’, the total number of such cases reported in the State for the period was 14,716.
The Home Department of the State government, which was suo motu impleaded by the court in a habeas corpus plea seeking a direction to the Commissioner of Police, Chennai, to produce two missing infants who were asleep with their families on the pavement outside Harbour MLA office on North Fort Road.
Appalled by the unwillingness of the Additional Public Prosecutor to provide a concrete plan to check such crimes and to trace the missing children or to name a police officer who could provide the information, a Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and V. Bharathidasan said, “If we lose faith in local police, then we have to think of some other ways to deal with the issue.”
Referring to the report, which stated that seven cases has been closed as not traceable, the Bench said, “The government has not stated in the counter affidavit as to whether any compensation is intended to be paid as mandated under section 357(A) of Cr.Pc to the victims.”
Moved by the appearance of the two mothers (Metha and Lakshmi), whose children went missing from a Chennai platform, the judges said, “From their very attire, we could understand their poor economic status. We cannot expect them to appear in the court losing a day’s income.”
Timely gesture
When the Bench was enquiring whether they had enough money to go back to their dwelling places, advocate Pugazhendi, who was present in the court, offered to donate Rs. 5,000 to each of them. Recording the same, the court appreciated his timely help.
Later, the Additional Public Prosecutor informed the court that Rajeswari, Superintendent of Police, CB-CID, and Raja Sreenivasan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CB-CID, would be present in the court on Monday and will provide a plan to check the issue.
