The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday set a two-day deadline for the Bangalore City Police Commissioner to trace two girls who have been missing for the past several months.
A vacation Division Bench comprising Justice N. Kumar and Justice K.N. Phaneendra issued the direction to Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar during hearing of two separate writ of habeas corpus filed by parents of missing girls seeking direction to the police to find their daughters.
The missing complaints were lodged with Srirampura and Kodigehalli police.
“Young girls going missing is a serious issue and there is no place for technicalities… the police should give priority to such complaints and swiftly initiate steps to trace the missing girls,” the Bench said while also observing that it is not ready to accept the police force as inefficient as the police had in the past traced missing girls within 24 hours on directions from the court.
The Bench also noticed that in one of the cases, the complaint was specific. It said that a particular man had allegedly kidnapped the girl. But, the police had not traced the girl four months after the complaint was lodged.
Claiming that he was not aware of these two cases, Mr. Auradkar said, “I hope that I prove right the confidence reposed by the court on police,” and sought more time to trace the girl. The Bench said the police must trace the girls by Thursday.
