Not every missing girl has eloped with lover: Bombay High Court to police

Lashing out at Maharashtra police for failing to hint a minor woman who went lacking from Thane final yr, the Bombay Excessive Courtroom has stated they need to cease assuming that each lacking individual’s case, involving a minor woman, was about her having eloped with a lover, as depicted in movies.

In an order handed on July 10, a bench of Justices S C Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre stated, “We're most sad with the state of affairs and the prevailing mindset of the police… Let not the investigating groups and officers positioned on the highest degree deal with each case as one the place the woman baby runs away with the boy she loves, notably as depicted in cinema or a movie on the display.”

The bench stated the authorities shouldn't overlook that these are actual life occasions and there are individuals who're struggling on account of lack of their youngsters. “…it's excessive time that a change is caused of their mindsets,” the courtroom stated whereas listening to a writ petition filed earlier this yr by the woman’s father, looking for that the police be directed to expedite its seek for his daughter.

In compliance with the courtroom’s earlier instructions, Further Public Prosecutor J P Yagnik submitted a report within the courtroom expressing helplessness on a part of the police in tracing the woman. He submitted that as per the probe carried out thus far, the minor woman had left the house of her personal accord after being “enticed” by a senior boy from her faculty.

Yagnik advised the courtroom that the 2 of them had escaped to Tamil Nadu, they usually stored altering their places. He additionally advised the courtroom that the police had recorded the assertion of the boy’s mother and father they usually weren't underneath any suspicion.

At this, the courtroom requested the police how might they are saying with such certainty that the boy’s mother and father, his kin, or pals weren't concerned? “Can faculty youngsters keep on their very own in an unknown place for therefore lengthy? How are they altering places, shifting resorts, who's giving them the cash? Why don’t you return to query the household and relations? How are you going to (police) ensure that they haven’t been mendacity?” the bench requested.

It was such a mindset of the police and different probe businesses that was irritating the aim of legal guidelines such because the Juvenile Justice Act, and the Prevention of Youngsters from Sexual Offences Act, the courtroom noticed.

“This can be a case of the alleged minor being kidnapped/faraway from the lawful custody from her mother and father. There could possibly be a deeper intention and we've typically discovered that such weak youngsters wind up in both prostitution racket, or are pressured to take up another work at a younger age,” the bench stated.

The mother and father of such women are left nearly with no help from any quarters, a lot much less the police equipment, it stated.

The courtroom has now granted a further two weeks to the police to submit a recent standing report, and stated it hoped that “some constructive modifications will emerge within the mindset of the officers”.