Reprimands cops over prejudice, says not every girl has eloped with her lover

Taking note of the police’s failure to trace a minor girl who went missing from Thane district last year, the Bombay High Court said that police authorities must stop assuming that every missing person’s case involving minor girls was about her having eloped with a lover, as depicted in films, earlier this week.

A Bench of Justices S.C. Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre was hearing a writ petition filed earlier this year by the girl’s father, seeking to expedite the police’s search.

In compliance with the court’s previous directions, Additional Public Prosecutor J.P. Yagnik submitted a report saying that as per the probe conducted so far, the minor girl had left home of her own accord after being “enticed” by a senior boy from her school.

The two of them had escaped to Tamil Nadu, and they kept changing their locations, Mr.Yagnik said. The police had recorded the statement of the boy’s parents and they were not under any suspicion, he added.