HC slams DMRC, CISF after girl goes missing

Taking suo moto cognisance of a media report about a 19-year-old mute and hearing impaired woman going missing at the Adarsh Nagar Metro station, the Delhi High court slammed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Wednesday.

Last Friday, the girl, her mother, and her sister were to get down from the Metro at the Jahangirpuri station but she couldn't and was separated from her family. CISF sources said she was later seen coming out of the next Metro station, Adarsh Nagar, in a CCTV footage. She was seen exiting through the gates without a token but nobody stopped her because there was no guard deployed at the exit gate."How could a girl, who did not have a token, leave the Metro premises? What were they doing? Had they been vigilant, she would have not been lost. They should be hauled up for this," a Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Deepa Sharma stated.

On its part, the CISF spokesperson said the force had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs last year only, seeking permission to deploy a man at the exit gates, after two masked men robbed a station controller and stabbed him. Nothing, however, was done in this regard.

"A robbery accused was seen walking out of the gate after attacking a DMRC staffer. After that, the CISF had requested the ministry to allow deployment at the AFC gates to keep a check on unauthorised entries. The ministry's response is still awaited," a senior CISF officer said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police informed the court that they would constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ascertain the whereabouts of the girl and will expand their search to neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The cops also said that they would conduct searches at red-light areas.

Appearing for the Delhi Police, counsel Rahul Mehra said there were chances that the girl was kidnapped. He said they were going to release her photo on social media and put it on auto-rickshaws.The court then directed the Delhi police to release pictures on social media in all the missing cases without fail. "The use of technology can be done to circulate photos It should be done in all cases," the Bench said.