Jamshedpur, May 16 : Cases of young girls going missing are on the rise so much so that the district police have decided to come into action and try tracing them.
The police will send a team of two-member police officials to Chennai and Karnal in Haryana later this week for tracing two girls who went missing from Sidhgora locality of the city on February 26 this year after they had come out of their houses for shopping in Sakchi market.
In another case, a teenage girl, who is a student of Tata College, Chaibasa is missing since the past 11 days when she had gone to market at Sundarnagar on May 4 from her house at Purihata in suburban Sundarnagar police station.
In yet another incident, a 17-year-old girl, who was an orphan, has gone missing from the Ghatshila referral hospital where she was undergoing treatment on Sunday early morning.
The police consider the Sidhgora missing case as a case of human trafficking. �Young girls, especially in the age group of 10-16 years are in the demand and are being lured from villages, tribal hamlets of the districts, school and junior college hostels,� noted a police official.
Sarita Kumari (21) who was a student of Jamshedpur Workers’ College in Mango had to buy some goods for the marriage of her cousin sisters. She along with another 17-year-old girl came out of their houses in Sidhgora, but did not return home.
Sarita’s father Mangal Singh lodged a missing report with the Sidhgora police station on February 26, the day the duo went missing.
“My daughter had sent an SMS informing that they are like to get jobs in Punjab. Then after a month, my daughter called over a cellphone. This time she was in Chennai.
We had informed the development to the police who after taking out the call details said the two girls might be somewhere either in Chennai or at Karnal,” said Singh.
OC, Sidhgora police station, Fulan Nath said ” It is too early to comment. We suspect it to be a case of human trafficking. We have decided to send a two-member team to Chennai and Karnal as we have traced the calls were made from the two cities.”
About the Tata College student, Kapra Hansda, the police are not sure what might be the reason behind her disappearance. �We have lodged a case and have also sent wireless message across the state for tracing the girl. No idea what happened with the girl,” said OC, Sundarnagar thana, Dilip Yadav.
Meanwhile a police official said that trafficking is an organised crime that needs concerted inter-state and inter-agency efforts. Arresting a guilty placement agent, or shutting down a factory that employs trafficked persons is not enough. The entire money trail needs to be tracked and everyone involved tried as per law.