Visakhapatnam: The number of women missing cases is increasing in Vizag. In short, when it comes to women’s safety, Vizag is slowly losing its record. So far this year, 165 cases of women missing were reported and over 40 per cent of these are still in the investigation stage. Sources in the police department said that some of the missing women and girls might have ended up marrying people in other states while some may have ended up in the flesh trade.
However, there was no clear cut evidence to clearly support any trend. As per the data available with police, as many as 900 women and girls went missing from January 2015 to May 2017 and there was no progress in over 140 cases. A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, said that they are doing their best to trace the missing women and girls within their limitation. However, in some cases like elopement, suicides in other states, they failed to trace the missing women as the victims turn off their mobile phones, he said.
The primary reasons behind the women going missing from their homes are either family disputes or love affair and sometimes, an illicit relationship. “In most of the women missing cases there is no kidnap angle and out teams have been investigating the cases from multiple angles to trace the missing women,” said assistant commissioner of police (East) A.N. Murthy.
Pointing out that the police has not adopted any particular technology to trace the missing girls, for example, Vizag police have almost reached dead end into the investigation into missing techie Sadhana Pandey, daughter of a retired petty officer from the Indian Navy. It has been over three years and the police have not got any concrete clue on civil engineer Sadhana Pandey (22), who had gone missing from Vizag since September 24, 2012 say activists of women’s organisations.
