Kochi: The Kerala police have informed the High Court that 50 of the 2,221 children under the age of 15, who went missing in the past three years, still remain untraced. Additional inspector general V. Gopalkrishnan, on behalf of the state police chief, submitted in the court that 2,171 of the children who disappeared between August 1, 2014 and August 1, 2017 were found.
The court sought the information from the police in response to a plea submitted by Thaju Panavalli of Alappuzha seeking a special police task force to trace his challenged son who disappeared four months ago. The police told the court that deputy superintendents of police (DySPs) attached to crime record bureaus in all districts had been named district nodal officers and assigned with the review of such cases.
How the police proceed
Police pass on information from their control rooms to railway and bus stations and sea and air ports.
If no information on the child is available within 15 days of registering a case, the case will be handed over to a special unit handling missing cases under a DySP. If the child is not found in another four months, the case goes to the district prevention of child trafficking unit.
Details of missing children are published in the state crime record bureau's 'Talaash' criminal intelligence gazette.
The social justice department in the state handles the national 'Track the missing child' web portal. The police said the web portal as well as the district cyber cells function in unison to track missing children.
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