Tracked down over 40% of two,300 lacking individuals in Dec: Ahmednagar Police

In December 2020, Ahmednagar Police traced 1,011 individuals of two,301 who had been lacking since 2015 or later. Through operation Muskaan, the lacking individuals, which included 621 girls and 390 males, have been reunited with their households, Ahmednagar Police stated.
The lacking individuals have been traced over a month after the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had pulled up police, after a number of disappearances have been reported from Shirdi. In October final 12 months, the courtroom, whereas listening to the petition filed by Indore-resident Manoj Soni– whose spouse had been lacking since 2017– had requested the Director General of Police to step into the case to search out the lacking individuals. Soni’s spouse Deepti was discovered final month.
Manoj Patil, Superintendent of Police (SP), Ahmednagar advised The Indian Express, “There was Operation Muskaan and definitely, there were directions from the High Court and the DG’s office at the same time. We could trace almost 40 percent of the 2,301 missing persons in one month. In all, we could trace 1,080, which included 49 people who were not registered as missing. There were people who were begging in some places. They were abandoned. Some had returned to their families on their own, but that was a small number. Many others we could trace through phone numbers, friends and acquaintances. Based on clues given by them, we could trace the missing persons.” Among these traced by the district police have been additionally 77 of 200 kids reported lacking in instances of abduction, police knowledgeable.
While the instructions of the High Court got here following a number of instances of disappearances from Shirdi, the Shirdi police station traced 20 lacking individuals, together with six girls and 14 males in December. The Tophkhana police station within the district, nevertheless, traced as many as 102 individuals in a single month.
Patil stated, “It is not correct to say Shirdi is a hub. We have found that even in other religious places like Pandharpur, Shevgaon, Kolhapur, the number of missing cases is smaller, and most cases are missing locals and not people coming from outside to visit.”
While the High Court had requested police to look at the chances of human-trafficking or an organ transplant racket that might be behind the disappearances, police haven’t discovered any instances of that sort.

“So far we have not got any cases of human trafficking or organ transplant rackets. But we are on the lookout. Even if there is a single case, we will try to trace it out.” stated Patil.
Police inspector Bajirao Powar, the nodal officer for Operation Muskaan in Ahmednagar stated, “People had gone missing for various reasons like family issues, dispute with family members, financial problems, unemployment or they did not want to get married.”