By S.P. Singh
Ghaziabad, March 26 (IANS) Tied with a rope, four-year-old Rohit was being
carried in a gunny bag on a cycle-rickshaw by his kidnapper. The child
regained consciousness and the abductor panicked and fled the scene. Rohit
was rescued. But over 80 other children missing from Ghaziabad district of
Uttar Pradesh since October have not been so lucky.
In a grim reminder of the Nithari case in Noida where 19 children and young
women went missing and were later found raped and murdered, as many as 60
children have been missing in Ghaziabad in the last five months from Oct 1,
2008, to March 10, 2009.
At least 20 missing children complaints have been filed with the Indirapuram
police station followed by 14 in Modi Nagar, 11 each in Pilkhuwa and Niwari,
nine children were reported missing from Sahibabad, seven from Sihani Gate,
six from Loni, two from Murad Nagar, and one case each was reported from
Vijay Nagar, Dhaulana, Masuri and Hapur.
The residents of Ghaziabad allege an apathetic attitude on the part of
police.
“Being a border village of Delhi, the locality is facing a terrible problem
of child abduction. When children are found missing, we have to search for
them on our own. When we approach police, they tell us why are we producing
children when we cannot protect them,” Ram Kumar, a resident of Bhovapur,
told IANS.
Last week villagers in Bhovapur, under the jurisdiction of the Indirapuram
police station, recovered Rohit from a gunny bag after the child regained
consciousness and the cycle-rickshaw driver became suspicious. Rohit’s
kidnapper panicked and left the gunny bag in the cycle-rickshaw and fled.
Among those missing is a four-year-old girl from the same village who has
not been traced for the last 15 days.
Rajdev, 13, and Raj Kishore, 11, have been missing from the Bhoor Bharat
Nagar area covered by the Vijay Nagar police station for the last two weeks.
The father of the two children accused the police of a lack of effort in
tracing the missing children.
“They (police) have done nothing to recover the children,” said Babloo, the
father of Rajdev and Kishore.
On March 17 six-year-old Karan was abducted from Shaheed Nagar under the
Sahibabad police station.
Karan’s father Vijay lodged a complaint with the police but claimed that it
was through his own efforts that he was able to trace his son from Buxar in
Bihar.
Superintendent of Police Akhil Kumar told IANS: “Although at this time
police are engaged in election preparations, I have instructed police
officials to be more sensitive on such isssues, where children and women are
concerned.”
(S.P. Singh can be contacted at [email protected])