The main focus of EMPOWER PEOPLE lies on awareness raising and sensitization trainings for law enforcement agencies. The organization is also offering direct victim support and assistance to women vulnerable to human trafficking and domestic violence.Police are sitting “idle”, the high court said on Thursday while referring to the failure of the force to trace the girls who go missing from across the state.
In a report earlier submitted to the court, the police had said more than 2,500 girls had disappeared from the state in 2009 and 2010.
Only two have yet been traced. One of them, rescued from a red-light area in Pune, was present in the court.
“Do the state police know that the number of girls disappearing from the state is the highest in the country and that these girls are smuggled to other states? Why are the police still sitting idle? Why can’t they trace the girls?” the division bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice A.K. Roy asked.
Appearing for the state, additional advocate-general N.N. Adhikary blamed other states for the failure to track down the missing girls. “It’s difficult to find them unless the states where the girls are taken to cooperate (with the state police). States like Maharashtra give shelter to trafficked girls.”
Following a high court order in September, the CID had rescued Yasmin Khatun (name changed), a girl from South 24-Parganas, from a lane in Delhi. A habeas corpus petition by Yasmin’s stepmother had led to the court’s intervention.
On Thursday, the court was hearing five similar petitions by parents from South and North 24-Parganas. Of the five the police have been able to crack only one, rescuing Usthi girl Meena Khatun (name changed) from Pune.
Meena had gone missing on October 27, 2009, after leaving home for a neighbourhood grocery. Her father, a carpenter, lodged a missing diary two days later.
With the local police allegedly showing little interest in the case, her mother moved the habeas corpus petition in November 2010.
On November 21, the bench of Justice A.K. Talukdar and Justice M.K. Chowdhury ordered the director-general of police to find Meena and produce her in the court.
The court issued similar orders on the four other petitions, which came up for hearing on Thursday, but the police failed to report the whereabouts of the girls. Additional advocate-general Adhikary prayed for more time.
The court granted a fortnight to the police.
Around 100 similar cases are pending in the high court.
Meena was produced before the Diamond Harbour additional chief judicial magistrate on Wednesday but he asked the police to present her before the high court as the habeas corpus petition was filed there. The bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice A.K. Roy sent Meena to a Liluah home, where she will stay till the court decides on Thursday whether she should go back to her parents.
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