Girl in state protection untraceable for 28 days.

Ludhiana: Police failed to register a criminal case or launch a search for almost a month after a 17-year-old girl was reported to have escaped from a state-mandated children's home, her parents allege.

The officers who claimed the teenager had escaped the facility near Ludhiana on May 11 committed to filing a first-information report (FIR) — the official initiation of a criminal investigation — only on Monday following media inquiries.

The girl's father, a daily-wage labourer, said management at the observation home had failed to notify the family of the escape. The parents only discovered their daughter was missing when they went to visit her on May 20.

"We went to the Doraha police station, where officers promised to register a case and find our daughter, but they did nothing," the father told The TOI. "I am worried she has been killed or exploited."

A court had placed the teenager in the facility for her own protection, after police had rescued her in Feb from a man who had allegedly abducted her for marriage.

Doraha’s station house officer (SHO), inspector Akash Dutt, defended the delay, stating that officers were conducting a preliminary inquiry to determine internal accountability at the care facility. "This is not the first case of a girl’s going missing from there," Dutt said. "The FIR will be lodged today (on Monday)."

With the help of a local advocate, the parents have filed a formal complaint with Doraha’s superintendent of police and written to the director of social security and women’s and child development.

Management at the children's observation home declined to comment.