JAJPUR: After groping in the dark for last seven months, Binjharpur police released posters announcing a cash reward of Rs 20,000 for information about two and a half-year-old girl Pihu who went missing from Madhusudanpur village in August last year.
The police action came after the girl’s mother threatened to sit on a dharna in front of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from February 25. Earlier on Saturday, Jajpur SP Rahul PR visited Binjharpur police station to review the status of Pihu’s case. The SP has formed a special team to probe the case.
Police pasted posters of the missing girl at various locations and even fixed them on passenger vehicles. In the posters, police have urged the public to provide any information about the missing girl through the shared mobile numbers. Besides, police started to dry the pond near Pihu’s house on the day suspecting that the girl might have drowned.
However, Pihu’s mother termed police efforts as useless. Expressing displeasure over the progress of the probe, she said, she been claiming that Pihu was kidnapped. “My child was playing along with three other kids outside the house on August 9. While the three kids are safe, my child is missing,” she said.
Pihu’s mother had lodged a complaint about her missing daughter the same day and the police could have immediately searched the pond, she said. “Police are drying up the pond after seven months. When there was need for searching and tracing my daughter, police failed. Now, it is all useless,” she said.
Pihu went missing in the afternoon of August 9. The parents immediately lodged a complaint with police alleging that their daughter was kidnapped. After failing to get justice from the local police, they met Jajpur SP and Collector but to no avail.
The parents then went to Bhubaneswar and staged dharna before the residence of Woman and Child Development Minister Tukuni Sahu last month. They could not meet the Minister as she was out of town.