Issuing Slew Of Guidelines, Tripura HC Orders State To Frame SOP For Probe In Missing Person Cases, Ensure Police Adherence

A bench of Justice T. Amarnath Goud also underscored the importance of having a comprehensive SOP to guide the state police force in its investigations and responses to reports on missing persons.

“To trace out the missing persons, the police department of the State needs to play a vital role. They cannot be expected to delay with matter when the life of missing persons is at stake,” the Court observed.

Importantly, the Court issued the following directions so as to guide the state police machinery to probe the matters of missing persons effectively:

A. Publish photographs of the missing person in the Newspapers, telecast them on television & social media promptly and photographs of the missing person shall be given wide publicity at all the prominent outlets of the city/town/village/last known residence of the missing person concerned, and at the railway stations, inter-state bus terminal points, hospitals, airports, regional passport office, through law enforcement personnel at border checkpoints and circulate the handbills/poster along with photographs of missing persons and the place of circulation. This should be done promptly in any case, not later than one week of the receipt of the complaint. In case of a minor/major girl, such photographs shall not be published without the written consent of the parents/guardian.

B. Make inquiries and contact with family member of missing person, relatives of family, neighbors, school teachers, office colleagues, last known persons including friends of the missing person, place of work, colleagues, acquaintances, lodges/, dharmasala, Nariniketan, mortuaries in hospital, placement of agencies, NGOs, Principal, Class Teacher of missing persons and if the missing person is employed anywhere, then to contact the most recent employer and his/her colleagues at the place of employment and record their statements. Search area and spots of interest such as movie theatres, shopping malls, parks, game parlours and areas where missing person should be identified. Equally all the clues from the papers and belongings of the missing person should be promptly investigated.

C. Any previous history of going missing and scrutinize the missing person's computer, cell phone, diaries with the consent of the families.

D. Inquiries should be made from the hospital, if any, of unidentified persons in the hospital.

E. Investigating Officer should always be in the rank of Inspector of Police.

F. Make necessary inquiries whether there has/have been any past incident(s)/reports of violence in the family and follow up to ensure that records requested from the parents/guardians/family members are obtained and examined them for clues.

G. Hospitals and mortuaries are to be searched immediately after receiving the complaint, not more than 7(seven) days from the receipt of complaint.

H. The reward for furnishing clues about missing person should be announced within a month of his/her disappearance and prepare a sufficient number of Hue and Cry Notices containing photographs and physical description to be sent for publication within a month.

I. The concerned Police Commissioner or the DIG/IG of the State Police would find out the feasibility of establishing a multi-task force for locating the girl children/women/ missing persons.

J. Immediately after registering the Case (Missing. kidnapped, deserter, wanted, escaped, unidentified person, unidentified dead body), wireless messages should be sent to the District Superintendents of Police by the Investigating Officer and submit a Report about the progress of the investigation to the Director General of Police by the Superintendent of Police of the concerned District until recovery/finding of the missing person, and Communicate the said Report to the parents/guardians/ family members of the missing person every 15 days.

K. DNA Profiling of unidentified Dead bodies are to be tallied with the DNA of the missing person and in all cases of recovery of unidentified dead bodies, the police officials concerned, be it the Local Police or the Railway Police Officials, shall be made to contact the nearest Medical College/Hospital, for the purpose of collecting viscera samples from such unidentified dead bodies so that the same can be preserved for DNA comparison/analysis, as & when required.

L. Issue "Certificate of Missing" of the Missing Person by the concerned authority, i.e., the DM & Collector of the concerned District, if after all diligent efforts for 6(six) months since of complaint regarding the missing person, as aforesaid, the Mission Persons could not be traced out for. If the missing person remains untraced for four months, such cases shall be transferred to Integrated Anti Human Trafficking Unit (IAHTU) for further investigation.

The Court issued these directions while dealing with two writ petitions where the family members of a woman and a boy had approached the High Court seeking a direction to the state government to trace the missing persons.

While dealing with both cases together, the Court received suggestions from the senior counsel for the petitioners to ensure an effective, speedy and accountable investigation for locating the missing persons.

The Court also sought suggestions from the Government Advocate to come up with any suggestion that would not only assist this court in dealing with the present case but also make some guidelines for dealing with this kind of issue in the future in Tripura.

In view of the directions issued by the Court, the Secretary, Home Affairs, Government of Tripura, was directed forthwith to issue the standing operative procedure in respect of the missing persons (child, man, and woman) accordingly and ensure that the State Police Force follows the said guidelines.

Both the writ petitions were disposed of with the said observation and direction.

Case title - Amulya Bhattacharjee vs. The State of Tripura and 4 Others, along with a connected matter

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