After the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of Delhi Police failed to trace an intellectually disabled minor girl, who had gone missing from Rithala metro station in 2017, Delhi Police Head Constable Seema took it upon herself to find her. Last month, her investigative skills and perseverance bore fruits as she found the child from a shelter home in east Delhi.
This is one of the many successes that Ms. Seema, who goes only by her first name, has to her credit. She was transferred to Metro Unit in July 2020 and has traced 63 missing children in the last three months, reuniting them to their families. Going beyond her routine policing duties, she collects details of missing children from Zonal Integrated police Network (ZIPNET) registered at other police stations in the city and traced them.
“I have been to Bihar, Meerut, Haryana and many other cities to trace missing children. Of these 63, 16 were children below eight years and the rest were under 14,” said Ms. Seema.
Difficult task
It was never an easy task and due to her busy schedule and other reasons, the investigation took a backseat occasionally. But she decided to pick up such cases after going through their details from ZIPNET. Interestingly, all the cases she has solved so far were not registered with the unit she is posted in.
“I will thank my seniors who provided all kind of support to volunteer service to trace missing children,” she added.
Ms. Seema said that many were traced to shelter homes or found in slums. The children were traced after door-to-door search, technical surveillance and coordinating with police departments of other States.
Jitendra Mani, DCP (Metro), said that tracing missing children has been Delhi Police’s priority and when Ms. Seema showed her interest in pursuing the task while carrying on regular duties, he appreciated her dedication and helped her in every possible way.
An inspiration
“She is an inspiration for other police personnel in the unit. In total, the metro unit has traced around 100 children, including the ones she had traced. So, she has single-handedly solved more than half the cases registered here,” Mr. Mani added.
In August last year, Delhi Commissioner of Police S.N. Shrivastava had issued directions and laid down an action plan for tracing missing children and reuniting them with families.
