Police to develop e-facility for lodging missing complaints

New Delhi: The Delhi Police have told the high court here that it has decided to develop an e-facility to streamline reporting of missing persons, including children, and to reduce human interface. In a status report placed before a bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, the Delhi Police have said an e-facility shall be developed through which the citizens would be able to report instances of missing persons on its web portal.

"The service shall be provided at the portal of the Delhi Police through internet. This shall ensure prompt and timely police response and take the service delivery closer to the citizens of Delhi," the report, filed through Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and additional standing counsel Sanjay Lao, has said.

The status report was filed in response to the court's recent suggestion to police to consider allowing lodging of FIRs through SMS, email and WhatsApp in case of missing persons to prevent loss of time and ensure speedy investigation.

Appreciating the "alacrity" with which the Delhi Police have reacted to the suggestions of the court, the bench observed "with online registration of FIRs, human interface – which normally causes delay in registration of an FIR – would be obviated".

The bench was also of the view that at the police station-level as well as at the district-level the investigation procedure followed by the Anti Human Trafficking Unit/Crime Branch "should be replicated".

"For this purpose, not only latest technology and training, but also general guidelines in the form of standard operating procedure should be issued and followed at the ground-level.

"The intent behind directing issuance of standard operating procedure or guidelines is not to control the discretion of the investigating officer, but to ensure that certain essential steps like flashing of message on wireless and placing information of a missing person on the ZIPNET are taken in a time bound manner," the court said.

The order came on a PIL initiated by the court on its own after receiving a letter on April 23 from a Madhya Pradesh-based woman claiming that her daughter who was working has a maid in a house at Suvidha Kunj in Pitampura here as has gone missing from there. After the high court took up the issue as a PIL, police had lodged an FIR on May 18.