Special police unit to trace missing women, children

KOCHI: Ernakulam will soon have an exclusive District Missing Persons Tracing Unit (DMPTU) to streamline investigations in missing cases registered across police stations. The police department's decision to launch the DMPTU comes in the wake of increasing number of untraced missing women and children over a period of time.
In the first three months of 2013, 33 children have been reported either kidnapped or abducted in the state while the number of missing women stood at 92.As per the data provided by Childline, 58 children have been reported lost between April 2011 and October 2012 in the district. The same was 66 between April 2010 and March 2011.
State police chief K S Balasubramanian has already directed respective police heads to launch DMPTUs in all districts to strengthen probes into missing cases registered in the state. As per an order issued by the police chief, DMPTUs will coordinate with agencies such as the cyber cell to track missing persons.
"Every year quite a number of people are reported missing in Kerala, including young girls and children. Only a few of them have been traced and produced before courts, that too after very lengthy investigation. The missing cases could actually be cases of human trafficking for various purposes, including sexual exploitation," the police chief noted in the order.
"We have initiated procedures to set up the DMPTU in the district. Crime detachment DSPs and ACs will head the unit. Special teams will be constituted to probe each case in detail," said a senior police officer.
A statewide figure of the number of missing women, provided by the criminal intelligence gazette of the state police, stood at 862 for the period between 2011 January and 2012 December. The maximum number of women who have gone missing over the last three years fall between 15 and 35 years.
As per the new order, the DMPTU will take over probe of a missing case if the person remains untraced even after investigation for 15 days from the date of registration of the case.
The chief of the DMPTU will form special teams and each group will be assigned specific tasks for investigation.