‘Missing’ minors return, but with children

Two minors, who went missing in 2010, were brought before the Bombay High Court on Monday, however, with their children born from the men who allegedly kidnapped them.

The two girls, aged 15 and 17, were reported missing after Samsuddin Khan, the father of one of the girls, filed a complaint at the Wadala Police Station on May 10, 2010.

Claiming that the police failed to find their missing daughters and seeking a transfer to another investigating agency, the mother of the other girl Shrijavati Sharma filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court.

Sharma said the two girls had been “taken away” by two boys named Muntaj and Parvez, both residents of Dinbandhu Nagar in Wadala (East). Sharma said the police had taken no steps to find the girls except for a “farce” of visiting the Bastigoda village in UP in search of the accused.

“The court has taken a serious note of the fact that the girls appeared before them through the officer concerned along with their children, born out of the physical relations maintained by the accused with them and it appears from their version that they got married to the accused a year and a half ago,” said Sharma’s lawyer Abhaykumar Apte.

Apte said the accused were produced before a magistrate and have been sent to police custody until December 20. “We have made an application seeking the insertion of Section 376 (punishment for rape) against the accused,” Apte said.

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