Court orders cop to file affidavit in Pune missing case

The Bombay high court, on Friday, ordered the senior police inspector of Bund Garden police station to submit a detailed affidavit explaining what efforts have been taken to trace the 12-year-old mentally challenged son of Jitendra Singh, junior engineer with the railways, allegedly kidnapped last month.

The Bombay high court, on Friday, ordered the senior police inspector of Bund Garden police station to submit a detailed affidavit explaining what efforts have been taken to trace the 12-year-old mentally challenged son of Jitendra Singh, junior engineer with the railways, allegedly kidnapped last month.

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“If they want, the police manage to locate a missing person within hours. Why can’t they do the same in this case?” questioned the division bench of justice VM Kanade and justice Roshan Dalvi while directing Bund Garden police to submit a status report of their investigation by January 6.

The court was hearing Singh’s petition seeking Crime Investigation Department (CID) investigations as the local police had failed to carry out a proper investigation in the alleged kidnapping of his son since November 26.

His counsel Amit Kumar Bhowmik said that though there was a possibility of the child being kidnapped by a begging or prostitution racket operating out of Pune railway station, the possibility of the child being picked for human sacrifice too cannot be ruled out.

Singh’s petition states that though he managed to trace the alleged kidnapper on the basis of footage recorded on CCTV cameras installed inside Pune railway station, the police let off the alleged culprit Pramod Kamble, a day after his arrest.

The petition asserts that Kamble confessed to having taken the boy with him to Bund Garden police following which he claims to have forgotten what happened thereafter. Despite his confession, police had done little to trace the missing boy, it adds.

With Friday’s order, Bhowmik is hopeful that Pune’s commissioner of police Meera Borwankar will assist in finding the boy. “Borwankar is a sensitive and proactive person and hopefully she will activate the system to trace the missing boy,” he said. The matter will come up for hearing on January 6.