High Court Pulls Up Police For Delay In Acting On A Missing Minor Case

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday sharply criticised police officials from Dhar and Khargone districts for delays that allegedly allowed suspects in a missing minor case to flee.

The habeas corpus petition was filed by Kesha Ram, who reported that his minor daughter was missing and allegedly in the custody of four individuals identified as respondents 5 to 8.

On November 12, the petitioner informed the court that his brother had traced the girl, the suspects, and their relatives to Maheshwar in Barwaha district. The court deliberately with held these details from the order dated November 12, expecting swift action from the police.

However, during Monday’s hearing, the court found that no communication had been sent to Barwaha police for nearly seven hours after the order was passed at 11 a.m.

SHO Savita Choudhary of Sadalpur police station told the court she had court evidence duties and had asked the SDOP, Badnawar, to act. She stated that she finally contacted the Barwaha SHO between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. The SDOP, Badnawar, also confirmed that he spoke to his Barwaha counterpart only in the evening.

By then, officers said they learned that the suspects had been present the previous night but had left early that morning, allegedly due to a family bereavement and travel to Rajasthan.

The bench of Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi noted that the failure to relay information promptly had given opportunity to suspects to flee away, stating they were prima facie not satisfied with the conduct of the police.