KOCHI: In a swift operation carried out by city police, a 32-year-old woman was traced within hours after she was reported missing by her family following a quarrel with her husband. The incident has, in fact, tested the city police’s capability to conduct a combing operation in the city within minutes of receiving input. The police received a call from family members of the woman around 11 pm on Sunday saying that she had left home after a fight with her husband.
A senior officer who contacted the woman on the phone heard church prayers in the background and immediately alerted the city police team that the woman was in a church in the city. Patrol teams were deployed to track her down. The Central police station which received the information started combing all main roads under its jurisdiction. A timely hunch led a patrolling team to scour the main road leading to the Goshree bridge around midnight. The team spotted a lone woman walking towards the bridge. Though they asked the woman to stop after approaching her, she refused and increased her pace.
The patrolling team somehow convinced a family passing by in a car and requested a woman in the car to go along with the police team to talk to the woman. Central police Station House Officer (SHO) S Vijayashankar, who also reached the spot along with women police officers, spoke to the woman and collected details about her family members.
“She was later handed over to her family members after counselling. It was the timely information shared by the family that helped the police to track down the woman,” Vijayashankar added.
Police found that the woman had walked all the way from Kaloor to the Goshree junction in the night. In this case, the family alerted the police immediately when the woman left home.
“Usually, family members do not inform police if a member goes missing. They conduct an inquiry on their own initially and only when they fail to get any information, they approach the police. If police are alerted on time, the chances of tracing the person is high,” said the officer.