A shocking case of six children going missing from a posh township in Delhi on a single day came to light on Thursday, amidst rising concern about their safety in the wake of the Nithari killings.
A two-year-old girl was among five other children, aged between two and 12 and residing in Dwarka of south-west Delhi, who went missing between 5 pm and 7 pm on last Saturday, Child Helpline officials told PTI.
The missing children, including three girls in the age group of 2-8 years, belong to families staying in slums near Dwarka.
Keeping in mind the flak faced by Noida police for not registering first information reports in missing children cases, the south-west district police swiftly registered the missing reports.
"Police is working on the missing reports, but we are not able to achieve any breakthrough as there is no thread leading to the cases," a senior police official said.
Meanwhile, one of the children was rescued from Gurgaon after a lady informed Child Helpline-1098.
"Yes, we got call from parents of these children on Saturday evening and one of the children have also been found," said a helpline official.
Asked whether there was any pattern in the disappearance of the children from a particular area, investigators and helpline officials said it was "too early to draw any trend."
Vishakha (2) and her 11-year-old brother Puchu went missing from Som Bazaar area, adjoining Dwarka at around 5 pm and could not be traced till date.
"I was told that my living place does not fall under Dwarka police station," Nanda Devi, mother of Vishakha and Puchu, alleged.
Bisco, the three-year-old daughter of one Sukesh went missing from the same area at around 7 pm.
Similarly, Sunita (8), daughter of one Shivnath Mahato, a resident of Bharat Vihar area is nowhere to be traced since Saturday evening.
Ashutosh (12), from a nearby area, is another child reported missing.
For Karan, who went missing the same evening, he was lucky enough to be spotted by a lady near Bata Chowk in Gurgaon, who returned the child to his father Ajay Kumar, a resident of Palam area near Dwarka.
Stepping up its efforts to trace missing persons, Delhi police issued an advisory last week asking its officials to conduct a proper study of the area from where people went missing.
"The early hours after the missing occurrence and the proper study of the area of living is vital in tracing the missing child," said the advisory issued by Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ranjit Narayan.
