VIJAYAWADA: The HC on Wednesday pulled up Guntur police for failing to trace a Class X girl who has been missing for nearly three months and directed the DGP to produce her before the court on Thursday.
A division bench comprising Justice Battu Devanand and Justice Gedela Tuhin Kumar issued the direction while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl’s father, Vasu, a Guntur businessman. The girl went missing on June 10 after leaving for tuition.
Petitioner’s counsel D V Sasidhar told the court that Sheikh Jaan Saida alias Rabbani had allegedly trapped the girl through Instagram, after which she left with 200 grams of gold and Rs 1 lakh cash.
Despite evidence including the suspect’s bike details, phone purchases in Nellore, lodge stays in Coimbatore and travel routes through Kerala and Hyderabad, police failed to trace her for 80 days. The suspect had also challenged police on Instagram to catch him.
The bench questioned whether the girl had been kidnapped, sold or held against her will, and termed the police failure a total institutional collapse. It rejected a request to route directions through the local SP and held the DGP directly accountable.