20 DDRs converted into FIRs

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 21

Following the Supreme Court’s reprimand due to the lax attitude of the police in registering first information report (FIR) in the missing children cases, 20 FIRs have been registered by the police here in the past few days.

Instead of the FIRs, the police were earlier registering only daily diary reports (DDRs) in the missing cases. Further directions have been issued to the police to immediately register a kidnapping case if anybody lodges a complaint of missing child.

The police took the initiative as the Punjab Police are to file a report pertaining to such cases in the Supreme Court on January 13. Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi’s Bachpan Bachao Andolan had recently moved a petition in this regard.

ADCP, Crime, J Elanchezhian, said Amneet Kondal, ACP, North, had been appointed the nodal officer to look into the cases of missing children. “The ACP will look into the investigations into the missing children cases. She will also deal with the missing complaints and will ensure that FIR is registered in the missing children cases on time,” he said, adding that the nodal officer would also review the old missing children reports and would convert the same into FIRs.

He said that after the SC’s directions, the police had been investigating all missing children complaints seriously and directions had also been issued to the SHOs concerned to register an FIR as soon as a complaint lands in the police station.

Similarly in rural police, due care is being paid to the missing children reports. SP, Detective, HPS Khakh, said rural police had already been considering all missing chidren reports seriously and FIRs had already been registered in all missing cases.

“The Rural police had only DDR, which was recently registered at one of the rural police stations and the same had now also been converted into an FIR after the Supreme Court’s direction. Serious efforts are also being made to trace out the missing children,” the SP added.

Sources said in the last 19 months, as many as 35 children had gone missing in the district under mysterious circumstances. Most of these children belonged to poor families and migrant labourers. They were also suspecting that their children might be trafficked to other states.

Sources said as many as many as 22 children, including 14 girls and eight boys, were missing in the Jalandhar Commissionerate jurisdiction, while 10 girls and three boys were still to be traced in the rural police. Police lingered on in FIR registration

The son-daughter duo of Anup Sharma, a native of MP, had disappeared in August last year. Till date, the police have failed to trace them. “Despite my complaint at the Basti Bawa Khel police station in August last year, the police registered an FIR under kidnapping case after over three months in December. We suspect that our children might have been kidnapped by some trafficking gang because if they were kidnapped for ransom, we would have received a ransom call till date,” the aggrieved father said.

Similarly in another missing case of 16-year-old minor girl Shivani of Adda Hoshiarpur, who reportedly disappeared from school on September 18, the city police had registered a kidnapping case after over a month in October this year. Rani, mother of Shivani, also suspected that her daughter might have been kidnapped by some trafficking gang members.