Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (SP)
Bantwal, Apr 16: An incident, in which a minor girl from the taluk was abducted, came to light on Tuesday April 15, after the family members approached Dakshina Kannada district superintendent of police and Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), alleging police inaction in the case. They reveal that a case about the abduction had been filed in the rural police station here on March 17.
The family members have gathered information that the girl is now in Mumbai. They suspect that she has become the victim of a systematic racket of human trafficking. The girl, daughter of the late Jayant Poojary from Nadayi in Sarapady village in the taluk, aged around 15 years, was a tenth standard student of the government high school in Navoor.
Footage of closed circuit camera in the town shows that the girl was escorted by the girl’s aunt to near a temple in Bantwal town from her village, before she was picked up in a luxury car waiting there. The police have collected the CCTV footage. The family members have also got information that a person named Ashok from Chikkota in Bijapur had abducted the girl. Reportedly Ashok used to frequent Mangalore relating to his dealing in grapes, but no one is certain how he came in contact with the girl in question.
The family members are worried about the delay on the part of the police in investigating the case. They claim that the policemen have been putting off investigation on one pretext or the other, and have not taken the issue with the seriousness it deserves. The relatives of the girl also say that the policemen had questioned three persons, who had accompanied Ashok during the incident, and let them go scot free.
The incident came to light after the brothers of the missing girl approached Dakshina Kannada district superintendent of police as well as KSHRC and handed over petitions seeking early investigation into the matter. It is said that the policemen are now claiming to be busy in election work, promising to take up investigation after April 20. In a press conference held recently, BJP leaders had accused leaders of a national party of protecting the accused in this case.
The locals too are angry at the delay and apathy of the police in taking action in the case. They point out that the lethargy displayed by the police in the past over complaints of missing girls had enabled Cyanide Mohan to go on a killing spree, accounting for the lives of about 20 girls. In that case too, the police had acted upon after the people relentlessly held protest relating to the incident in which a girl from Barimaru village had gone missing. In cases like these, every day’s delay can prove detrimental to the safety of the victim, the villagers argue.