VIJAYAWADA: With just 55 percent success rate in cracking cases related to missing people, members of the public especially the near and dear of the yet-to-be-traced ones are raising concern over the State government’s poor record in this regard. Compared to previous years, 2017 recorded a 20 per cent increase in untraced cases. According to the crime data statistics, 8,410 missing cases were reported in the State with 8,421 people, including boys, girls, men and women, having gone missing in 2017 for various reasons such as kidnapping, sexual abuse and running away from home owing to personal reasons or abduction with the motive of the killing.
Out of the total 8,421, the police traced 3,834 missing persons and the remaining 4,587 were not found or traced in the police investigation. About 55 per cent of the missing cases that were reported at various police stations across the State, are yet to be solved. In 2016, the police traced 4,920 persons (65%) out of the total 7,589 who went missing. Similarly, 4,939 people (66%) were traced out of the total 7,499 who were reported missing in 2015.
It is observed that the number of cases increased by 820 (10%), which is alarming. The trend was observed mostly in cities like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Rayalaseema districts of Anantapur and Kurnool. Shockingly, the methodology of the police in investigating the cases of missing children had failed to yield the desired results as close to 1,000 children, including girls and boys, are yet to be traced. In 2017 alone, as many as 2,170 children went missing. Of them, the police restored 1,215 children to their parents.
Vijayawada has earned a dubious distinction of topping the charts in the last two consecutive years. As many as 234 child missing cases were reported in 2017, followed by Anantapur and West Godavari districts.When TNIE contacted a senior police official on the sudden decrease of missing case detection in the State, he expressed his concern and said the police should adopt latest technologies while investigating missing cases. “The missing cases are different when compared to others. More care should be taken while probing missing cases of children,” he said.