Missing BMC health worker: Coworkers allege police of mishandling case

Workers from Chembur and Kurla-based health posts of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) marched to the RCF police station on Friday afternoon.

Mumbai: After community health volunteer Rekha Kharatmol went missing on Monday, workers from Chembur and Kurla-based health posts of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) marched to the RCF police station on Friday afternoon. They alleged that the police had mishandled the missing case of their coworker.

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“The police have not found much about her in four days,” president of the Municipal Health Service Employees Association advocate Prakash Devdas said. “They told us that the last location of her phone is traced to Dadar, where she was not supposed to be. They have not been able to find out whether she went there or her phone was stolen.”

He added that the police have not taken the matter seriously and if substantial information on her whereabouts did not come through soon, all four thousand health workers of BMC would go on strike.

As per Kharatmol’s colleagues at the Ayodhya Nagar health post in Vashi Naka, she had reported for duty at 9 am on January 23 and after collecting some essentials, she left for home visits. However, she did not report back at 2 pm as she did on other days.

In the past four days, the Municipal Health Service Employees Association has contacted various higher officials in the police department and the BMC. On Friday, some of Kharatmol’s colleagues and her family members met the senior inspector of RCF police station Babasaheb Ghawate, who assured them of intensifying the search.

“We met family members of the missing woman on Friday and informed them about the investigations done by us so far and the progress we have made. The woman’s phone has been traced to several locations and the phone is working. There is no untoward incident and we will soon find her,” added Ghavate.

A civic official said that the BMC officials have written a letter to the police department to hasten the search for Kharatmol.