Six years ago, a 14-year-old girl from Jharkhand’s Bokaro district left home at 10.45 am to attend tuition classes and was never seen again by her family.
From her scattered books and bicycle found nearby, to a ransom call received months later from a Kerala number, there were several leads that her family sought to chase, but the police’s efforts, her parents alleged, were far from satisfactory.
Now, the Jharkhand High Court has expressed strong displeasure in the police handling of the case and said it should be handed over to the CBI if no concrete progress is made in the coming three weeks.
The police station that handled the missing person complaint was the same one that was thrust into the spotlight last month after the High Court flagged police inaction in connection with the investigation of another missing girl from the area. This had led to the suspension of all 28 personnel from the police station.
Last week, the state government told the court that the case of the teenager missing for six years was transferred to the Jharkhand Police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) on April 20, just days after the suspension of the police personnel in the other case. The court, however, orally observed that if no “concrete action” is taken in three weeks, the matter should be handed over to the CBI. The next hearing is scheduled for June 8.
It was on October 16, 2020, when the 14-year-old went missing. She had left for tuition classes just 10 minutes after her younger brother had set out to the same coaching centre, their father said. He told The Indian Express that about 1.5 km from their home, her bicycle and books were later found scattered on the roadside. Her mother said that over the next several years, the family repeatedly searched for leads, but they all “slipped away like sand”.
However, a major development came in January 2021, when the family received a late-night ransom call demanding Rs 10 lakh. “At around 3 am, a call came on my husband’s phone. The caller said our daughter was with them and demanded Rs 10 lakh,” the mother claimed. She said the caller spoke in a “heavy voice”, which she still remembers. The family later learnt that the number was registered in Kerala.
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According to the mother, Bokaro police later travelled to Kerala and found that the number allegedly belonged to a man who was living in Dubai at the time. She said that after the police returned, she herself managed to establish contact with the man through Facebook.
“He told us that the number was no longer with him. He said he had lost it nearly a month before my daughter disappeared and that somebody else may have been using it. He also gave us another number and said he was ready to speak to the police,” the mother said.
According to her, the man repeatedly told the family to connect him with the Bokaro police so he could explain his position. “He was in touch with us till June-July 2021. But no officer spoke to him,” she alleged.
She also alleged that people who were known to have been present on the route that her daughter took to go to the coaching centre had not been examined by police, despite the family providing them with the names.
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Some other witnesses were examined, and some of them allegedly recalled seeing two boys “dragging away a girl” near a medical store. Three persons were subjected to narco analysis nearly three years after the registration of the FIR, but nothing concrete came out.
Expressing disappointment with the investigation carried out over the years, the mother said the family initially believed the police machinery was sincerely trying to help them. This belief gradually weakened over time, she said.
She pointed to the other case, which led to the suspension of 28 personnel, as having further shattered her confidence in the local police. That case pertained to a girl from the same district and police station area who had been missing since July last year. It took 10 days for an FIR to be registered after the missing girl’s family informed police, and the investigation was marred by allegations of police inaction and even assault of members of the victim’s family. The High Court pulled up the local police in connection with the case, and days later, all 28 personnel of the police station were suspended. Around the same time, police recovered skeletal remains 10 km from the girl’s home in Bokaro and claimed that the remains belonged to her. The court subsequently directed authorities to conduct DNA testing of the remains. The next hearing in that case is scheduled after the court vacation.
While in that case, the girl had been missing for about one year, in this case, the family has been on a six-year search. “Every day, I still feel my daughter is calling me. I still believe she will return,” the mother said.
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According to the family, the girl was academically bright and aspired to become an IPS officer. On the day she disappeared, she had left home carrying a mathematics textbook and told her mother she would return soon. “Her books are still kept at the police station as evidence,” the mother said.
Bokaro’s Superintendent of Police (SP) was transferred last month in what police said was a routine reshuffle. The new SP said the six-year-old case is now with the CID and that he could not comment on it.
