Families of missing people should search on SHODH, say rly officials

A police official helped the family of missing Kurla resident Suresh Hemji, 48, find out what had happened to him

SHODH (www.shodh.gov.in), the Mumbai railway police’s search engine for accident victims and missing people, last year helped the families of eight missing people find out what had happened to their loved ones.

The police traced eight missing-persons cases using SHODH last year. (Shutterstock)

“We managed to trace eight such cases using SHODH last year,” said a police official who helped the family of missing Kurla resident Suresh Hemji, 48, find out what had happened to him.

According to his family, Suresh had gone missing on September 17 last year. A day later, they registered a missing-person complaint with the VB Nagar police. Two months passed but the police were unable to find Suresh. His family then approached Mumbai police commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and on November 8 the crime branch began looking into the case.

Using details provided by the family about Suresh’s age, height, weight, build, identifying marks, hair type and complexion, the police were able to use SHODH to narrow down the search. They identified a few possible candidates from which the family picked out Suresh. According to the police’s records, he had died the same day in a train accident at Dadar and the GRP had registered a case of accidental death. The family thanked the police for helping them get closure.

“People looking for their missing relatives should run a search on the SHODH website to find out if he or she died in a train accident,” said a GRP official.

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