The NGO, Human Rights Committee of India, Gujarat chapter, will visit every police station in the state from Sunday to get details about children missing from areas under their jurisdiction. The Gujarat chapter of the NGO is headed by BJP leader Sanjay Joshi who is also its national joint secretary.
The Missing Cell of CID (crime) is responsible for tracking children who have gone missing from different areas of the state. Joshi has also met DIG AK Jadeja in this regard. “Even the Missing Cell doesn’t have complete information about the traceless children,” said Joshi on Saturday.
The NGO will file an RTI application at each of the police stations for information about the missing children. The 280-member Gujarat chapter has also planned a protest from Monday in this regard.
“Children have been missing for three years but apart from a complaint, the Missing Cell has no data on the cases. Sometimes, even the complaints don’t reach CID (crime),” Joshi said.
On Thursday, he met DGP Chittaranjan Singh to complain about the failure of the local police in tracing the missing children. According to the BJP leader, the DGP wants each complaint to pass through various police ranks before it is brought to CID (crime).
“This will further delay investigation in the cases. A local police station should directly inform the Missing Cell of CID (crime) about any child who is reported as missing,” Joshi said.
“CID (crime) has a much better network of informers than the local police. It is better if the CID investigates the cases. It takes just five hours for someone to cross Gujarat’s borders from any part of the state. A swift response on the part of the police is necessary,” Joshi said.
The NGO has been championing the cause of the missing children and has launched a ‘searchmychild’ website to trace and reunite them with their parents.
Sources said that the officials of the NGO had taken up the matter of the missing children with the police stations where complaints in this regard had been lodged.
The organisation plans to take the matter to higher authorities if the police ignore their plea, the sources said.
